Rookie Canadian Wheat Board president Ian White insists that neither agriculture minister Gerry Ritz nor anyone from government vetted his views on the single desk issue before he was appointed to head the board last winter.
White said he plans to take his orders from the CWB board of directors and not the minister’s office.
The former Australian sugar industry executive made his first appearance before MPs May 13 and immediately faced tough questions from opposition MPs.
“There was great suspicion around your appointment that you may be appointed to achieve the prime minister’s objective, which is to undermine the Canadian Wheat Board,” said Liberal Wayne Easter.
Read Also
Final crop reports show strong yields, quality
Crops yielded above average across the Prairies this year, and quality is generally average to above-average.
Winnipeg New Democrat Pat Martin piled on.
“You may not be a deregulator or here on a deregulation agenda, but the prime minister of Canada and the minister of agriculture are obsessed with deregulating the CWB,” he said. “So when you were hand-picked and selected to come here with your past record, you can’t blame us for coming to the conclusion that you may be here to co-operate with them.”
White replied that the issue never came up before he was appointed. He was recommended by a committee of CWB directors and then confirmed by Ritz.
“The minister held a very short videoconference with me,” White told Easter. “He didn’t indicate to me any direction and really wanted to talk to me about my credentials before he appointed me. From an outsider’s point of view, I regarded that as a fairly proper process.”
Martin reminded White he was under oath before he launched a series of pointed questions.
Has any government official ever asked him to consider that (dismantling the monopoly) as a part of his mandate or as part of his personal background and personal beliefs?
White said no.
“So no government official has ever raised the idea of how you feel about dual marketing versus single desk?” asked Martin.
“No,” replied White.
Instead, while carefully avoiding invitations to state he believes single desk is the only appropriate model for the CWB, White said it is his job to try to convince farmers of the benefit of the existing marketing system.
White assured MPs that his Australian experience as head of Queensland Sugar Ltd., when the industry decided it wanted to get rid of the mandated single desk, was not a harbinger of his plans for Canada.
“I wish to make it clear to all members of the standing committee that I have not come on a deregulation agenda.”
Afterward, Easter said he was satisfied that White does not intend to simply follow orders from the government.
Martin was not so forgiving.
“I’m not comforted at all,” he said. “Mr. White wears many masks and none so virtuous as the mask of treachery. I believe he was hand-picked for his ideology and propensity to deregulation.”
Martin said his “glimmer of hope” is that the longer White stays on the job, the more he might appreciate the merits of the single desk.
