TISDALE, Sask. – It appears likely that a re-elected majority Conservative government would use as its template for ending the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly an opt-out proposal championed by an Ontario Conservative MP.
Last winter, rural Ontario two-time MP Bruce Stanton proposed a private member’s bill that would allow individual farmers to opt out of the Board marketing system for a fixed period.
During election campaign interviews with Conservative candidates across the Prairies, the opt-out option was almost universally cited as the way the government should proceed.
On April 21, Prince Albert MP and election candidate Randy Hoback became the latest.
When asked how he thought a majority government would proceed on agricultural priorities, he replied: “We would do things we promised to do and reforming the Canadian Wheat Board and giving farmers the ability to opt out will be on the priority list for sure.”
While Hoback, a former chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers’ Association and a fierce CWB single desk critic, said he is impatient to see the issue dealt with quickly, he recognizes the need for caution.
“I’d like to see it in the first year, the second bill,” he said. “But I recognize that we would have to be respectful of the markets and if you do something harsh or abrupt, you would send the wrong signal to the markets and that instability or uncertainty would not be good.”
Stanton’s bill would give prairie farmers the right to opt out of the pool for a minimum of two years by giving notice between Jan. 1 and March 31.
It would allow an opted-out farmer to opt back in by giving a year’s notice.
In a February interview, the hotel operator from a largely rural riding north of Toronto said it balances the right of western farmers to sell their wheat and barley to whomever they want, as Ontario farmers can do, while giving the CWB the stability of knowing how many farmers will be delivering to the pool in any given year.
“I think this is a balanced bill and it is something I as a member and we as a government believe in,” he said.
Liberal critics at the time saw it as anything but balanced.
“This is another attempt to knee-cap the CWB,” said deputy Liberal leader Ralph Goodale who as Canadian Wheat Board minister in 1997 shepherded the modern CWB Act through the House. “Either you have a single- desk system or you don’t. There’s no halfway house.”
While details of the opting-out process could change in a government bill, sentiment in the Prairie caucus appears to be favouring the opt-out option rather than a more draconian amendment to the CWB Act simply changing the rules and ending the monopoly.
Hoback said he thinks prairie farmers from both sides of the issue are ready to end the debate.
“The reality is people are sick of the debate both on the single desk and the open market side,” he said. “I know single desk guys who say if people want to opt out, let them but don’t let them back in.”
He said then board supporters could determine the future of the board without the constant battle.
Board supporters insist the right to opt out would effectively kill the Board by breaking the monopoly power that it needs to have clout in the market.
