Prime minister Stephen Harper has raised the possibility of trying to strike a deal with the separatist Bloc Quebecois in order to pass legislation ending the Canadian Wheat Board’s export monopoly, according to a director of the Western Barley Growers Association.
Rick Strankman, who along with fellow WBGA director Art Walde met with Harper during an Aug. 2 political event in Lloydminster, said the prime minister talked about how the government’s minority status makes it difficult to get a bill through Parliament and suggested a political deal is one option.
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“He alluded to speaking to the Bloc about it,” said Strankman.
“That’s the political arena they’re operating in and he said they’re
going to explore all the avenues.”
A spokesperson in the prime minister’s press office said in an e-mail she was not aware of the details of the discussion between Harper and the farmers.
Asked specifically if Harper will try to strike a deal with the Bloc for support on the wheat board issue, she only said the government is “currently looking at its options.”
The Bloc has allied itself with the Liberals and New Democrats in opposing the government’s plans to end the CWB’s single desk authority over barley and wheat.
As long as those three parties remain united, the government couldn’t get a bill passed through Parliament, which a Federal Court judge recently ruled is the only way to remove barley from the board’s marketing mandate.
Spokespersons for the other two opposition parties said that while the BQ has consistently voiced its support for the single desk, nothing is guaranteed in politics.
“I have concerns because I think the BQ is a wild card in this,” said NDP agriculture critic Alex Atamanenko.
He believes agricultural producers in Quebec are behind the CWB on the issue of collective marketing, but he’s not sure the BQ would necessarily reflect that in a vote.
“There are too many political cards that could be in play to be 100 percent certain they would vote with the wheat board.”
The influential Quebec farm group Union des Producteurs Agricoles has been a supporter of the single desk and there’s no indication that has changed.
BQ agriculture critic Andre Bellavance, who has also supported the retention of the single desk, could not be reached for comment.
Cosy on up
Liberal Wayne Easter said he has no doubt that Harper will make overtures to the BQ in an
effort to gain its support on the CWB issue.
That has already happened once, he said, on the issue of making the CWB subject to new federal access-to-information rules last year.
At first the BQ indicated it would join the Liberals and NDP in opposing such a change, but eventually it voted with the government.
“It shows that deals can be cut,” said Easter.
However he thinks that on the broader issues of the future of single desk marketing, the BQ won’t want to risk alienating the UPA or losing support among farmers.
CWB director Larry Hill said while the BQ has been an important ally so far, he doesn’t know how solid and deep-rooted that support is.
He added that Quebec farmers recently set up their own provincial single desk wheat marketing agency, and that the majority of the province’s producers are involved in supply managed industries, which are positives from the CWB’s perspective.
Open desk supporters have called on the government to introduce a bill to amend the CWB Act and make it an issue of confidence, meaning that if the government loses, an election is held.
In a joint letter to Harper, the barley and wheat growers associations say that would force opposition parties “to decide whether they are prepared to give prairie farmers the same marketing freedom that other Canadian farmers have, or are prepared to bring down the government on this issue.”
Meanwhile, federal NDP leader Jack Layton, said Strahl should be fired from cabinet for mishandling the CWB issue and disregarding farmers’ democratic right to run the board through their elected directors.Speaking in Saskatoon Aug. 8, the NDP leader also said he’s concerned the government will continue to look for ways to do an end-run around the Federal Court ruling.
