A future Liberal government would rewrite the Canadian Wheat Board Act to make it clear prairie farmers and not government are in control, says Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter.
“We thought we had done that but clearly, the wording of the act has been interpreted differently,” the veteran MP said, referring to 1998 CWB Act amendments that established a farmer-elected majority on the board of directors.
“The whole philosophy behind the 1998 changes was that we were giving farmers control of the board.”
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However, the 1998 amendments left in place section 18 (1) that gave the cabinet the power to “direct the corporation with respect to the manner in which any of its operations, power and duties under the act shall be conducted, exercised or performed.”
Judge J.A. Noel of the Federal Court of Appeal recently used that section to rule that the Conservative government had the right in 2006 to order the CWB board of directors not to use board resources to advocate for keeping the monopoly.
Noel pointed out that the Liberal government actually strengthened the ability of Ottawa to direct the board by adding clause 18 (1.2) that reads: “Compliance by the corporation with directions is deemed to be in the best interests of the corporation.”
Easter said those clauses will have to be amended or removed. As well, instead of giving Ottawa the power to appoint five of 15 directors, he thinks that should be reduced to two, with the 10 elected directors appointing the remaining three.
He said the federal government also would have to jointly agree with the board on appointment of a president and chief executive officer.
Easter said the federal government would have to keep the power to appoint several directors “to satisfy finance and Treasury Board because there still is a financial interest.”
However, if a new World Trade Organization deal is ever reached, Canada has agreed that government would no longer be able to act as a financial backstop for CWB credit sales.
“So if there is a deal, we would have to revisit if there is a role for government since there would no longer be that financial stake.”
Easter suggested the Liberal government in 1998 was nave when it left open to interpretation government powers over board affairs.
“Nobody ever envisaged you would someday have a hateful government like this that would use its appointment power to select directors not for the good of the board but to advance their own ideological agenda,” he said.
“We have learned from this. When we get a chance, we will move quickly to fix it. Our intention is that farmers should be in charge of the board and not government.”
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