WINNIPEG – The Canadian Canola Growers Association has given up trying to get the Federal Court of Canada to help stop the new canola futures contract.
Court records show the growers’ lawyers filed a motion to end the court action on Oct. 10. The growers had asked the court several weeks ago to instruct the Canadian Grain Commission to stop the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange from launching the futures contract.
At an earlier hearing Sept. 21 in Vancouver, justice Barbara Reed ruled she would not grant a temporary injunction that would have likely stopped the launch.
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Then, justice department lawyers filed a motion to strike the growers’ case altogether. That case, had it proceeded, would have been heard Oct. 11.
The growers are concerned the new futures contract will result in lower canola prices. But Justice department documents stated the growers did not establish the facts necessary for a judicial review.
Appeal to minister
Doug Sword, president of the canola association, was not available for comment. However, in a news release issued Oct. 10, Sword wrote the group decided to focus efforts on its appeal to the federal minister of agriculture.
The appeal was made under the Grain Futures Act, and asks the minister to amend or revoke the bylaw that moves the pricing point for the futures contract from Vancouver to the Saskatoon region.
Vern Greenshields, press secretary for agriculture minister Ralph Goodale, said the department’s lawyers are studying the appeal and preparing information for the minister, who was in Quebec City at a United Nations conference last week.
Further action may come
The groups’ news release stated its decision to settle the federal court case “does not preclude further proceedings at a later date before the federal court or other tribunals, such as the competition tribunal.”
The group also stated the performance of the new futures contract so far is evidence that moving the pricing point reduces competition and canola prices.
So far, the Sept. 1996 contract, which is the first month of the new contract, has been trading at lower prices than the old Aug. 1996 contract. But John DePape of the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange said the drop is to be expected.
DePape said in an interview that canola has a lower value on the Prairies than on the West Coast, but measuring the futures price this way will more closely relate to the cash prices that prairie farmers receive.
DePape said the price difference between the old and new contracts “is not larger than anticipated.”
