Barry Wilson

Leaders of Canada’s chicken industry bowed to their critics last week and agreed to rewrite the rules governing their national supply control and pricing system. However, it will not be clear until late this week or next whether the promise of reform will be enough to keep Quebec fully in the national system. It has […] Read more

The question of whether farmers should be able to vote to expand the jurisdiction of the Canadian Wheat Board, as well as to contract it, has caused a split in the Liberal caucus. Last week, Liberal MPs held some heated debates on the issue behind the closed doors of caucus meetings. Meanwhile, representatives of the […] Read more

Federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale was sounding exasperated last week over continuing American suggestions that Canada will or should limit the amount of grain flowing south this year. “I sometimes wonder what part of the word ‘no’ these people fail to understand,” he told the House of Commons April 17. “Let me be clear. There […] Read more

Canada will enter the next round of world trade talks in 1999 looking for rules providing more security for its state trading agencies such as the Canadian Wheat Board, says a federal trade negotiator. Agriculture Canada trade official Mike Gifford, who led the agriculture negotiating team during the last round of talks ending in 1993, […] Read more

In what has become a legislative striptease of Liberal intentions for Canadian Wheat Board reform, government MPs last week made another concession to their critics. The Liberal majority on the House of Commons agriculture committee agreed April 15 that 10 of the 15 seats on the proposed new CWB board of directors would be filled […] Read more

The railways last week fought back against Canadian Wheat Board allegations of inadequate performance by defending their grain-hauling record and pointing some fingers back at the wheat board. “Everybody knows this has been the worst winter in 100 years,” said CP Rail spokesperson Barry Scott in an interview from Calgary. “Despite that, we have moved […] Read more

The Canadian Wheat Board decision to file a complaint of inadequate service against the railways throws into the lap of a relatively new regulatory agency one of the most politically charged and long-running controversies in prairie agriculture. How the Canadian Transportation Agency deals with the complaint and judges the performance of the railways will say […] Read more

In the dying days of this Parliament, west coast bulk commodity shippers and port employers are making a last-ditch effort to thwart government proposals that grain be given special protection from third-party labor relations disruptions. As a forum, they are using the Senate committee studying proposed changes to the Canada Labor Code to complain about […] Read more

Within weeks, the federal Liberals will try to defuse a festering political issue by announcing a broad investigation into problems in the prairie grain handling system. Agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said in an April 14 interview the government cannot wait for the scheduled 1999 review of the freight rate cap on grain rates. “I think […] Read more

Agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said last week he expects grain and rail industry leaders to tell him within weeks how to devise a system of rewards and penalties to make the grain transportation system more accountable. He said he expects to see a penalties system implemented, but would not make a firm commitment. “That is […] Read more