WETASKIWIN, Alta. – After three months as a Canadian Wheat Board director, Jeff Nielsen said he has learned nothing that convinces him to change from an open market supporter to a supporter of the wheat board’s monopoly.
“Lord help me if I did, I’d be shot,” said Nielsen, a grain farmer from Olds, Alta.
“Nothing will ever change my mind,” said Nielsen during a break at a wheat board Farmer Forum held March 9.
Nielsen was the only winning candidate to voice support for an open market during the wheat board director elections last autumn. He replaced another marketing choice director, Jim Chatenay.
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Four other board members elected were monopoly supporters. Two of the 10 elected directors now on the board believe farmers should have more marketing choice, the same break down as before the election.
Nielsen, the former Western Barley Growers president, said he believes export barley should be removed from the wheat board’s sales monopoly and the number of farmers who want wheat removed from the board’s monopoly powers is growing.
“The wheat board’s own internal survey shows that barley producers want to see changes. That is increasingly growing with wheat, but it’s not quite there yet. The previous board has ignored that. We have to be responsive to that. We have to move forward.”
“Their own internal surveys show barley farmers want out. These are permit book holders saying that, yet the board of directors has ignored that. I have an issue when I go to Winnipeg and see that we can’t even listen to our own farmers.”
Nielsen said he has learned a lot in his three months on the job, but he won’t change sides on the issue, like former board member Ken Ritter and current director Rod Flaman, who switched allegiances and supported the board’s monopoly once they were elected to the board. Both said once on the inside they were able to see the board’s value to farmers and the necessity of maintaining the wheat board’s powers as the sole marketer of wheat and export barley from Western Canada.
Nielsen said he remains unconvinced that the wheat board would collapse or lose its effectiveness if farmers were allowed to sell wheat and barley outside the agency.
“My belief is we have the strengths within the Canadian Wheat Board to transition to something that will work for the benefit of farmers. That’s where I want to encourage some of the new directors to think more open minded.”
He said the wheat board must prepare for losing financial guarantees from the federal government in 2013 if a World Trade Organization agreement is implemented.
He said the wheat board should take another look at removing the $60 million cap on the board’s contingency fund as a way to increase the amount in the contingency fund and prepare for future marketing risks.
Nielsen said another possibility would be to change the structure of the wheat board so farmers are more like shareholders who can more easily demand change from the board of directors and staff.
