To no one’s surprise, the Conservative party last week pledged to offer prairie grain farmers a choice in how they market their grain.
The implication in the party election platform published June 5 is that the Canadian Wheat Board marketing monopoly on western-grown wheat and exported barley would end with the election of a Conservative government. It has been party policy since the days of the Reform party.
“A Conservative government led by Stephen Harper will give grain farmers the freedom to make their own marketing and transportation decisions,” said the platform.
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In the past, Reform and Canadian Alliance policy as articulated by former agriculture critic Howard Hilstrom was that a new government would unilaterally change the Canadian Wheat Board Act to end the monopoly, letting farmers decide with their sales whether to support the board or the private sector.
The Reform party became the Canadian Alliance before the last federal election and this winter, the CA merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the Conservative party.
Prairie Conservative candidates last week suggested that doing away with the CWB monopoly should come only after a vote by farmers affirmed that the majority wanted it.
“My farmers are split on the issue and I don’t think it would be wise for a government to decide this,” said Provencher candidate and incumbent Conservative MP Vic Toews. “Farmers now can vote for directors and maybe all the directors and not just 10 of 15 should be elected, but if farmers have the vote, they should decide how this issue goes.”
Brandon-Souris Conservative candidate Merv Tweed also insisted farmers approve before changes are made.
In Saskatchewan, Conservative agriculture critic Gerry Ritz said a switch to a dual market could not happen instantly: “There are contractual obligations and this is an institution that has been around a long time so we would have to phase in any change.”
Ritz, running for re-election in Battlefords-Lloydminster, said June 5 the party wants to see prairie farmers treated the same as Ontario farmers, who have the choice of selling privately or through the Ontario Wheat Board.
He agreed that the Ontario board became voluntary only after board directors asked the provincial government to change the legislation.
“I agree that farmers should indicate first, whether through directors’ elections or a referendum, that they want change before it would happen,” said Ritz.
In Alberta, Wild Rose Agricultural Producers president Bill Dobson said he will be upset if a potential Conservative government moved unilaterally to end the CWB monopoly.
“They talk a lot about democracy and I think it would be only right if farmers were consulted, maybe by plebiscite, before any decision was made,” he said. “It would mean that farm groups would have their work cut out for them if a new government raised the issue. Farmers would have to know the facts on both sides of the argument.”
Meanwhile, the wheat board also has joined the election fray against those who promote an end to the monopoly, even though it retains the status of a crown corporation and would have to work with the anti-monopoly Conservatives if they formed government.
The board issued a News release
news last week urging farmers to enter the election debate. CWB director Ian McCreary said the board was not entering the partisan debate by targeting the Conservatives.
“We have avoided being partisan because candidates from different parties have flirted with the idea of a dual market experiment,” he said from his Saskatchewan farm. “We have a duty to defend the benefit that comes from a central desk.”
