A private member’s bill to create Alberta’s own version of the Canadian Wheat Board is before the provincial legislature.
But even if the bill becomes law, it will have to clear another hurdle, this one in the courts.
“If it were to be passed into legislation it would be challenged on the basis that the province doesn’t have the right to exempt itself from the Canadian Wheat Board,” said CWB spokesperson Deanna Allen.
She said the bill wouldn’t survive such a challenge, since the CWB Act makes it clear that the Winnipeg-based agency is the sole export marketer of prairie wheat and barley.
Read Also
Volatile temperatures expected for this winter
DTN is forecasting a lot of temperature variability in the Canadian Prairies this winter. Precipitation should be close to average.
Last month Mark Hlady, a Progressive Conservative MLA from Calgary, introduced Bill 209, to create an Alberta Wheat and Barley Board that would give the province’s farmers another option to market those grains.
The bill passed first reading and within a few weeks will be presented for second reading.
Hlady said he introduced it because he knows many rural people who support his idea. He thinks the CWB’s monopoly deters value-added processing in Alberta and feels farmers should have marketing choice.
“It astounds me that in a free country you have to sell your grain to the Canadian Wheat Board or be thrown in jail.”
He points to the Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board as one precedent for the existence of an Alberta board. But Allen said the CWB Act applies only to a designated area in Western Canada and is irrelevant to Ontario.
Bill 209 says the Alberta Wheat and Barley Board would be run by directors answerable to government officials. Farmers would pay a small administration fee, perhaps a grain checkoff, and the board would hire marketers.
Cory Ollikka, an Alberta farmer and president of the National Farmers Union, said Hlady is “very open and overt about the intent of the bill. Of course it’s to destroy the Canadian Wheat Board.”
Ollikka disagrees with Hlady’s assumption that farmers would have more freedom with two boards to choose from, saying global companies largely control grain marketing now. And he doesn’t think the two boards could work together effectively for farmers.
Ken Moholitny, chair of the Alberta Grain Commission, said his organization hasn’t examined the bill well enough to agree or disagree with it. However, commission members do promote marketing choice for Alberta wheat and barley farmers.
“Certainly when you look at value-added in wheat and barley compared to other commodities I think the numbers speak for themselves. We have not made a lot of inroads,” said Moholitny, who thinks the CWB creates an atmosphere of competition without true prices being revealed.
Earl Geddes, program manager in market development for the CWB, said he has heard this argument before and insists prices are accessible. He also said the argument that the board deters value-added ignores the fact that Alberta has a lot of value-added industry, especially in terms of feeding grain to livestock.
