Wheat growers who want an open market might be forgiven for being envious of their barley-growing colleagues.
The federal government has been focused on bringing in an open market for barley, trying regulation, the courts and now legislation in the form of Bill C-46.
Meanwhile, other than the occasional encouraging word, the government hasn’t given any indication it’s preparing to move on wheat.
“I’m very frustrated,” said Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, which has fought for more than 30 years against the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly.
Read Also
Land crash warning rejected
A technical analyst believes that Saskatchewan land values could be due for a correction, but land owners and FCC say supply/demand fundamentals drive land prices – not mathematical models
While she’s confident the government will eventually move on wheat, she wants to hear from CWB minister Gerry Ritz when and how that will happen.
“They ran on a platform of marketing freedom, not just for barley but for wheat too,” she said.
“Fulfilling that promise means doing wheat too and the sooner the better.”
At one point the group considered lobbying for wheat to be included in C-46, but decided that would delay an open market for barley, which would be unacceptable.
But she said the group isn’t going to let the government off the hook on wheat.
“My preference would have been to have a confidence vote on both barley and wheat yesterday,” she said.
“It’s not happening fast enough for me and we absolutely intend to put pressure on the government to find out what their game plan is for wheat.”
In the 2006 election campaign, the Conservatives promised to end the board’s single desk monopoly over wheat and barley.
In its October 2006 report, a government-appointed task force on grain marketing proposed bringing in an open market for wheat in August 2008.
However, the government has not followed the blueprint laid out in that report, which included an open market for barley as of February 2008.
There’s a general view that ending the board’s monopoly on wheat would produce a tougher battle than has been the case with barley.
For one thing, wheat accounts for the vast majority of the CWB’s business, and a lot more money would be at stake with wheat.
Also, farmer surveys in recent years have generally shown that support for an open market for wheat is much lower than for barley.
Jolly-Nagel thinks that is changing, triggered in part by the gap between CWB pool return outlooks and U.S. spot prices in recent months.
The wheat growers believe there are several ways the government could bring in marketing choice for wheat without going through Parliament, primarily by the government ordering the board to provide individual producers and grain companies with export licences at no cost.
“There are ways they can do it. It’s certainly not a lost cause,” she said.
However, she noted that support from the malting industry has been crucial in pushing the government forward on barley, and she’s not sure whether that same kind of support would be there from the wheat industry.
The worst-case scenario as far as the wheat growers are concerned would be for the government to be defeated before the barley bill passes.
If that happens, she said, the group plans to make it a hot issue with Conservative candidates in the ensuing election campaign.
