The House of Commons likely will launch debate of government proposals for Canadian Wheat Board reforms in early March, government leaders indicated last week.
Government house leader Herb Gray said the proposals to change the wheat board will be a priority when the House of Commons meets in early March.
Shortly after that, the Commons agriculture committee expects to head west to hear prairie opinion on the legislation which would create a wheat board board of directors, give the board more flexibility and yet keep significant controls in the hands of the federal cabinet.
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The committee last week decided to ask the Commons for the estimated $100,000 it would cost to hold a week of hearings in the West.
Tentatively, the committee would hold hearings in Grand Prairie, Alta., as well as in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina and Calgary.
Those hearings would be held the week of March 17. The previous week, public hearings would open in Ottawa.
If the request is approved by the Commons, it would be the first Commons agriculture committee to travel outside Ottawa since the 1970s.
A number of prairie farm groups critical of the proposals have insisted the committee travel west to see first-hand the opposition and the opinions of farmers.
