Even as they were being publicly dismissed as politically marginal last year, Canadian Wheat Board protesters in Canadian Farmers for Justice were ringing up a million dollar expense for Canadian taxpayers and causing headaches for Revenue Canada customs officers.
Internal department documents indicate by the middle of last year, as the border protests escalated, department officials were fretting privately that they were losing credibility and control of the issue.
They were appealing for a stronger government response.
A May 1996 memo prepared for then-revenue minister Jane Stewart noted rising costs, stretched departmental resources and fear of violence deliberately created by the anti-board protesters.
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“While we have achieved some success in controlling the size of the problem, a group of FFJ members continue to openly break the law and harass and confront our customs and law enforcement officers,” the memo referenced to Michael Connolly, head of Revenue Canada’s enforcement directorate, told the minister.
“The department spends approximately $60,000 per month to enforce the export requirements for wheat and barley without any end in sight. Total costs are approximately $1.5 million to date. With increasing non-compliance, it is time for the government to re-assess its strategy.”
Charges laid, trucks seized
By then, as the federal government dithered over how to reform the wheat board, Farmers for Justice was organizing well-publicized border runs, criminal charges had been laid in some cases, more than 260 trucks had been seized and the customs officers were appealing for either a political settlement or more help from the RCMP.
Government officers were living in fear of the protesters.
“Due to the risk of violence and injury, we are unable to physically intervene when large convoys of trucks arrive or exit from the port at the same time,” said the memo to the new minister.
“Our actions have been hampered by our overriding concern for the safety of all parties, in particular the safety of our officers and those people who happen to be at the border for legitimate reasons during the protest. The FFJ is willing to create potentially dangerous confrontations at the border in order to exploit our concerns.”
Not a big deal
Last week, a spokesperson for Revenue Canada downplayed the importance of the memos, obtained by Ottawa-based researcher Ken Rubin under Access to Information laws.
MichŽl Cleroux of the department said costs were high then because protests were escalating, but the issue has cooled down since then and there is no longer the same level of costs or concern.
He said the $1.5 million cost was small compared to the departmental budget of $378 million for customs work and $462 million for enforcement and verification. “If you put those costs in context, it is not a lot of money.”
And he said the memo’s call for a re-assessment of the government strategy was not a call for a change in policy on the Canadian Wheat Board. “Revenue Canada does not tell other departments what their laws should be.”
In fact, there were pleas in the memos for a tougher response by the government and a publicity campaign by Agriculture Canada to make clear the potential individual price to pay for ignoring the law.
In late 1995, senior Revenue Canada officials toured the prairie sites of the protests and then asked Agriculture Canada to share some of the costs.
By then, department enforcement officers had concluded a weak government response was not deterring protesters. The movement was spreading across the Prairies, media coverage was increasing and Revenue Canada prairie resources were being stretched with little result.
