RENO, Nevada (Staff) – Canadian farmers who criticize Canadian farm policies in front of U.S. farmers are “betraying” their country, says the chair of the Canadian Wheat Board’s producer advisory committee.
Butch Harder said he was angered at some of the comments made by Canadian producers attending the annual convention of the U.S. National Association of Wheat Growers.
“They’re trying to help the Americans dismantle our farm programs and our farm policies and I find that really objectionable,” he said in an interview.
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But one of the targets of Harder’s wrath rejected any suggestion he was being disloyal, saying he simply wants to promote an open and honest exchange of views and information with his American counterparts.
“I want free, fair trade access to the American market and the more we can resolve issues before they become a problem, the smoother our relationship will be,” said Tom Jackson, a farmer from the Edmonton area.
Harder’s comments were a reaction to events during a discussion by NAWG delegates drafting a package of grain marketing policies.
At several points during the discussion, Jackson intervened to make comments about issues like CWB pricing policies and the presence of subsidies in the Canadian grain handling and transportation system.
He told the U.S. farmers they should be aware that the Canadian government may sell its 13,000 grain cars for less than market value and require that they be used solely for the movement of western Canadian grain.
Asked later why he brought up the hopper car issue, Jackson said he felt it was important to have everything on the table.
“We don’t want this stuff to come out of the blue and blindside us,” he said. “If people in Canada are trying to do things that will distort the marketplace, then (the Americans) need to be aware of it.”
Americans wouldn’t do it
That was too much for Harder, who said there is no way U.S. farmers would ever come up to Canada and speak out against their government’s policies.
“They were putting out what they see as the bad parts of our policy and just betraying Canada, that’s what it was,” he said.
Warren Jolly, a Saskatchewan farmer and vice-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association who has been coming to NAWG conventions for several years, said wheat grower association officials try to be careful in their comments.
“I can’t say we don’t do some of that (criticize Canadian policies), but I think we’re pretty subtle about it,” he said. “We might say ‘this is something you could use’, but it’s not like we’re giving them confidential information.”
Jackson, a member of the Alberta government’s Marketing Choice Implementation Group, said he thinks the U.S. is a freer and fairer trader than Canada in world grain markets. The U.S. is up-front about its subsidies under the Export Enhancement Program, while Canada’s subsidies are hidden in the CWB marketing system, he said.
