Ralph Goodale, the federal minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat
Board, is considering whether the board violated any rules by spending
$4,000 to send 10 people to a Liberal fundraising dinner in Winnipeg.
“He is looking at it, but he has not reached any conclusions,” Goodale
press aide Pat Breton said June 7.
Goodale told the House of Commons that the wheat board is no longer a
crown corporation subject to rules against political action, but he
promised to review the board’s revised code of ethics to make sure it
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is reasonable.
The CWB donation at a $400-a-plate Liberal dinner raised the ire of
critics across the spectrum last week, from traditional CWB opponents
such as the Canadian Alliance and the Western Canadian Wheat Growers
Association to staunch board defender Alexa McDonough, leader of the
federal New Democratic Party.
And it led to a stout Parliament Hill defence of the decision by board
leaders June 6, as well as a board attempt to embarrass Alliance critic
Howard Hilstrom.
The maelstrom erupted after it became known that the wheat board sent
staff and directors to a Liberal fundraiser attended by prime minister
Jean Chrétien.
In the Commons, Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz demanded that the board be
disciplined for playing politics with farmers’ money, which he said had
been sent involuntarily to the monopoly marketer.
McDonough noted a CWB explanation that it needed to spend the money to
attend the dinner as the price of access to the Liberals.
“The government has created a virtual culture of cronyism so corrosive
that the Canadian Wheat Board believes that it has to cough up an entry
fee for the purpose of doing business,” she said June 5.
The next day, CWB chair Ken Ritter and other board members tried to
face down critics by insisting at a meeting of the Commons agriculture
committee that they spend money to lobby all political parties, that
they spend it as a corporation rather than a crown corporation, and
that they have a duty and right to do it.
He said a revised board code of ethics that loosens old restrictions
against political activity had been approved more than a year ago, but
was only made public after the controversy surfaced. He said it was an
oversight not to post it sooner.
But Ritter did not back away from the board’s right to spend money
lobbying politicians, both government and opposition.
On the Liberal dinner, “we felt it was in the best interests of
farmers, felt it was money well spent.”
He also said the board had spent money to attend events held by former
Alliance leader Stockwell Day and agriculture critic Howard Hilstrom.
The stormy session produced some political theatrics by Hilstrom, a
Manitoba MP and critic of the wheat board monopoly.
During the agriculture committee meeting, he accused the board and its
government-appointed directors of engaging in the “political sleaze and
moral corruption” that the Liberal government is accused of these days.
Then he said he had discovered that wheat board personnel had donated
$225 to his constituency association last year when they attended his
annual riding golf tournament.
Hilstrom gave the wheat board witnesses a personal cheque for $225 from
his family account.
“I cannot accept pool account money that the farmers of the designated
region specifically directed, through their elected board members,
should not be used for political activities,” he said in an
accompanying letter to Ritter.
Wheat board staff made certain a letter between the board and a
Hilstrom fundraiser was part of the discussion.
In the May 22 letter, Peter Defer asked the board to be a $1,000
keynote sponsor for this year’s Howard Hilstrom Golf Tournament July
12. On May 31, Jim Pietryk of the board confirmed the board’s
sponsorship.
When asked in an interview about this sponsorship solicitation just six
days before his committee outburst, Hilstrom said it had been done by
well-meaning volunteers. He said he cancelled the deal in a June 5
telephone call.
“This will not happen again.”
