OTTAWA — Now that the right to limit elevator tariffs is to be taken away from the Canadian Grain Commission, what will protect farmers from being gouged by grain companies?
According to the Liberals and the Reform party, protection will come from competition and the fact that farmers own most of the grain companies on the Prairies.
“Because producer-owned or controlled companies now control the majority of elevator capacity in Canada, there is no need for government to continue to regulate tariffs on behalf of producers,” agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said.
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It was a line followed by many Liberal MPs as they spoke during a recent Commons debate on amendments to the Canada Grain Act which change the powers of the Canadian Grain Commission.
Farmer interests served
“The interests of (co-op) elevator owners and the interests of farmers are one and the same,” said Manitoba MP David Iftody.
Reform MPs in the debate, which ended with approval in principle of the bill, praised the end of maximum tariffs as a small step toward less government regulation.
But not all MPs appeared as certain the grain companies can be trusted not to gouge their customers or owner-members.
New Democrat Vic Althouse suggested tariffs have been kept in check because the grain commission has been “a good policeman”. Now, it will be “backing off and not be patrolling the neighborhood so fully.”
Outspoken Liberal Wayne Easter promised he would pursue the issue when the bill is studied at a Commons committee within the next few weeks.
“I do not believe for a moment that we can depend on the co-operative movement or the pools to protect producers’ interests,” he told the Commons.
The co-op grain companies worry as much about the bottom line as do private companies. “I believe there needs to be some government safeguards in terms of protecting primary producers’ interests and certainly we will debate that at committee level.”
The government described reforms as a way to update grain commission rules by limiting public liability for bankruptcies of unlicensed dealers, easing interprovincial grain transportation rules and toughening rules against false use of CGC grades by grain dealers.
Goodale said it improves the competitiveness of the grain industry by clarifying rules and ending unnecessary regulation.
Centralizing tendencies
Reform supported the legislation, but used the debate to criticize what they see as centralizing Liberal tendencies.
Reform House leader Elwin Hermanson (Kindersley-Lloydminster) said the legislation gives cabinet too much power to set regulations and to appoint bureaucrats to grain commission boards.
He said farmers want to have more control over the institutions and rules that govern their industry.
“The bill demonstrates once again that this minister of agriculture is a bureaucrats’ minister, not a farmers’ minister,” he said. “Not only does cabinet take powers from Parliament, but the bureaucracy also gets a whole raft of new authority.”
