Canadian Wheat Board directors beat a path through Western Canada’s heartland last week to try to mobilize support for the board’s imperiled single- desk marketing structure.
At meetings in Saskatoon and Regina, CWB chair Allen Oberg urged producers to support singledesk marketing by casting a ballot in a farmer plebiscite being conducted by the board.
The deadline for mailing plebiscite ballots is Aug. 24.
Oberg encouraged pro-board producers to lobby politicians and push for the retention of the wheat board, which holds a marketing monopoly over all wheat and non-feed barley produced in Western Canada.
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About 350 people attended the Regina meeting Aug 8. Another 450 attended the Saskatoon meeting the following night.
“I think the plebiscite itself is the strongest card that the organization has played so far,” Oberg told a largely supportive crowd in Regina.
“The results of that plebiscite, assuming that they are positive, are going to put … (federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz) in a very difficult position. He will need to choose whether he abides by the wishes of farmers or whether he adheres to party policy, and that’s not a position that I personally would like to find myself in.”
Wheat board directors say the board extracts at least $500 million more per year from the global marketplace than an open market structure would.
That money, derived from pooling prairie grain and marketing it strategically against other global suppliers, ensures greater returns for western grain growers, say board supporters.
The federal Conservative government and monopoly opponents say the board restricts farmers’ right to choose where to market their grain.
Ritz has indicated the government will introduce legislation this fall to eliminate the CWB’s exclusive marketing powers by next August.
At last week’s meetings, board directors preached the CWB’s merits to supportive crowds but gave no indication that the board and the federal government were prepared to discuss the future of western grain marketing in a co-operative manner.
Oberg criticized Ottawa for failing to properly assess the value of singledesk marketing and for neglecting to develop an alternative marketing system before dismantling the board.
He also refuted the idea of a system that would see the CWB competing for farmers’ grain in an open market.
“For those farmers who still believe that, going forward, we can have a CWB for those who want it and others can simply go their own way, that is simply not possible,” he said.
“The so-called dual market does not exist and the question on the ballot that we’re asking is the right one. You can either have a single desk approach or an open market system. There is no middle ground.”
Ritz was not available for an interview last week but suggested in an e-mail to The Western Producer that the government wants to provide every farmer with marketing freedom, whether that means selling grain individually or through a voluntary marketing pool.
“The CWB needs to realize that regardless of how many pro-board farmers attend their meetings or participate in their expensive survey, no one farmer should trump the rights of another farmer,” Ritz said.
“I encourage the CWB to use these meetings as an opportunity to look to the future and listen to farmers’ thoughts on what the CWB will look like in an open market.”
