Bill Nicholson thinks there may be merit in the Canadian Wheat Board buying more rail cars and investing in value-added processing.
Nicholson, a farmer and CWB director, said owning more hopper cars could give the wheat board greater leverage when negotiating rates and services with the rail companies.
The wheat board owns about 2,000 of the 24,000 hopper cars in Western Canada. The federal government owns the lion’s share of the fleet.
“The more cars anyone owns, the more influence they would have in the transpor-tation system,” said Nicholson, adding that he was expressing his own views and not those of the wheat board.
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The idea of buying more cars or investing in processing has not gone to the board for discussion, he said.
An investment in value-added processing might be another way for the wheat board to help farmers get better returns on their grain, said Nicholson, who farms near Shoal Lake, Man. It is a thought that other farmers have shared with him.
He quickly admitted, however, that such a move would be controversial. The wheat board would be seen as going into competition with its own customers, namely processors who buy board grain.
“It would be a tricky situation to do that domestically.”
Another possibility, said Nicholson, would be for the board to invest offshore in things such as handling and processing facilities. Those offshore partnerships could help secure a market for board grains.
Nicholson described his ideas as “blue sky thinking,” notions that arose while contemplating the future role of the board.
But the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association said any notion of the wheat board buying more rail cars should be forgotten.
“That is just a non-starter and will not be allowed to happen as far as I’m concerned,” said wheat growers president Ted Menzies.
“Why would you want to buy a fleet of antique cars? It’s just a common sense thing to me.”
The wheat growers association wants the wheat board removed from rail car allocation, a responsibility now shared by farmers, the wheat board, the railways and grain companies.
Menzies said he also would be concerned if the board began investing in processing ventures.
He regards it as a hindrance to farmers who want to start value-added enterprises that would use board grains.
He wants producers investing in those enterprises to be exempt from the board’s monopoly on export grains.
“We want opportunities to market outside the Canadian Wheat Board and they’re trying to build a bigger circle to keep us in.”
