Barry Wilson

During free trade negotiations with the United States a decade ago, the Canadian side was a reluctant defender of supply management protections, says one of the key Canadian negotiators. Canada’s defence of supply management was based on political considerations and pressure, primarily centred on keeping Quebec happy, rather than the logic of the position, deputy […] Read more

Next Tuesday, Parliament Hill hearings open on Canadian Wheat Board legislation which CWB minister Ralph Goodale said last week will “put farmers in the driver’s seat like never before.” After a three-hour House of Commons debate, the legislation creating a two-thirds elected board of directors and the opportunity for future wheat board votes was sent […] Read more

Canada’s chicken industry leaders will vote this week on new national rules designed to end interprovincial rivalries and overproduction which have threatened to destroy the marketing system. On Oct. 17, directors of Chicken Farmers of Canada will decide on a complex, delicately balanced plan which aims to stabilize producer prices and satisfy complaints from Ontario […] Read more

Critics of the government’s latest attempt at Canadian Wheat Board reform plan to amputate a proposal that farmers could vote to expand the board’s jurisdiction as well as to shrink it. As the House of Commons gears up to begin debate on the legislation this month, the “inclusion” clause appears poised to overtake the board’s […] Read more

Influential American political representatives continued their assault last week on Canada’s right to sell grain into southern markets without limits. In both Ottawa and Washington, tough talk flew but Canadian comments were restrained as officials said they were more interested in reducing the temperature of the rhetoric than in heating it up. Americans continued to […] Read more

Ontario wheat growers who are unhappy with the marketing monopoly of the Ontario wheat board will defy the board by selling on their own this winter, says one of the leading dissidents. “I think a number of farmers will decide to sell their wheat as they want,” said David Santo, chair of the Essex County […] Read more

The federal government is trying once again to update the rules governing federally regulated co-operatives, increasing their ability to attract investment capital from outside the co-op sector. Legislation introduced last week to the House of Commons also would allow co-ops to offer up to one-third of board of directors seats to non-members. One in five […] Read more

Canadian trade minister Sergio Marchi has warned against the growing American tendency to try to settle trade disputes by pushing for product-specific “managed” trade agreements, rather than relying on free trade rules. “I am concerned and troubled, if it begins to set a trend, that every issue will get managed,” Marchi said in the House […] Read more