Prairie farmers have spoken on barley marketing.
More than 55,000 farmers met the Feb. 28 deadline for voting on whether barley should be sold through the Canadian Wheat Board or on the open market.
And while it won’t be known for a couple of weeks what they said, representatives from both sides said they expect the board side will come out on top.
“I don’t suspect we’re going to win it,” said Tim Harvie, a Cochrane, Alta. farmer and opponent of the board’s export monopoly.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
The former chair of the Alberta Barley Commission said the deck was stacked in the board’s favor by federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale, who forced farmers to choose between the board and the open market.
“That’s not what farmers are asking for,” he said, adding that if a dual market had been on the ballot it would have won in a landslide.
Bill Toews, a Roland, Man. farmer and one of the organizers of the pro-CWB campaign in that province, also predicts prairie farmers will opt for single-desk selling.
“I hate to use the term victory, but I would say overall the majority of producers will favor barley under the board,” he said.
He appealed to farmers to accept the result so the grain industry can turn its attention to other important issues.
“I hope opponents of the board will sit back and not continue to push this,” Toews said. “That would be very divisive in the farm community. There’s been enough said to this point.”
After receiving complaints that some of the roughly 900 farmers who had to submit affidavits in order to receive ballots may not have received their ballots in time to meet the Feb. 28 deadline, the deadline for those voters was extended until March 7. That will delay the release of results until the third week of March at the earliest.
The 55,060 ballots received by KPMG as of March 3 represented about 71 percent of eligible voters.
Toews said he was pleased by the high voter response.
“The more ballots that are cast the better,” he said. “Regardless of what the outcome is, it will get more respect.”
But Harvie said board critics won’t give up, adding the plebiscite result could be rendered meaningless if the barley commission wins its court case challenging the legality of the board’s monopoly under the Charter of Rights. A ruling is expected any time.
In the final days of the campaign, some critics continued to complain about the balloting process.
Scrutineers wanted
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association complained because farmers won’t be allowed to scrutinize the vote counting by KPMG.
Goodale said he didn’t think scrutineers were needed, but he was considering the idea.
“I want to ensure the transparency of this process and I will consider very carefully whether adding some people to watch the vote count would improve the transparency,” he said Feb. 26.
KPMG spokesperson Craig Fossay said March 3 the firm decided not to allow scrutineers for fear the vote results may be made public prematurely.
