Prairie grain growers may or may not get a chance to vote in a plebiscite on the future of the Canadian Wheat Board.
That’s a decision the federal government has yet to reach.
But about half them will have an opportunity to cast a ballot for or against single desk marketing in this fall’s CWB director elections.
Since being introduced in 1998, the biennial election of directors has always boiled down to a choice between candidates favouring the single desk and those favouring a dual or open market.
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That choice should be even more pronounced this year, with the vote taking place against the backdrop of Ottawa’s plan to dismantle the board’s monopoly on exports of western Canadian wheat and barley and create what it calls a voluntary wheat board.
That’s widely expected to trigger a much higher turnout than the 40 percent or so that has been the norm in previous elections.
“I think it will be like a substitute referendum on the board’s future,” said director Allen Oberg, who will seek re-election in District 5.
Supporters of the single desk say this fall’s vote could be crucial in determining the board’s fate.
“This election will be the election that really counts,” said National Farmers Union executive director Terry Pugh, referring to the Conservative government’s claim that the last federal election provided it with a mandate to end the single desk.
“We need a full slate of orderly
marketing candidates and a strong turnout of voters,” he said, adding the government would be hard-pressed to ignore a strong showing by single desk candidates.
Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association president Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel disagrees, saying there are so many flaws in the CWB election process and the turnout is generally so low that the results mean little.
“I don’t think it will have any impact at all on the government’s plans,” she said, adding the association hasn’t decided whether it will actively support a slate of candidates.
She said farmers should elect directors who are business-minded and prepared to make changes to the board to enable it to survive in an open market.
Paul Orsak, chair of Grain Vision, a lobby group that supports an open market, agreed, saying voters should keep in mind the government’s pledge to end the single desk when they cast their ballot.
“I personally think it would be futile to campaign as a single desk supporter,” he said. “The government’s resolve to make it a voluntary board seems strong.”
Of the five incumbents, four are single desk supporters Ð Art Macklin in District 1, Larry Hill in District 3, Oberg in District 5 and Bill Nicholson in District 7. Dwayne Anderson in District 7 supports an open market with a voluntary CWB. So far no other candidates have come forward.
The four single desk candidates all said they will again run on maintaining the single desk and expanding the board’s role in the grain industry, as outlined in the board’s recently released vision document Harvesting Opportunity.
“It’s critical for farmers to stand up and be counted on this issue and the director elections are the appropriate forum,” said Nicholson.
Hill expects interest will be much higher in this election but isn’t sure how it will fit into the government’s plans.
“This government refuses to recognize the legitimacy of elected directors, so I’m not sure how they’ll treat the result,” he said.
Anderson said there seems to be little interest in the election among farmers in his area, which could reflect a number of things: being fed up with the whole CWB debate; a general apathy; or a preoccupation with more pressing issues like making enough money to survive for another year.
He’d like to see the campaign focus on how to change the board to ensure it survives and prospers in an open market, rather than whether or not to make change.
“I’m hoping the people that come to the board table will be looking to tomorrow, not yesterday,” Anderson said.
The election will be conducted under the same rules as the last time.
An election review panel appointed by the previous Liberal government after the problem-plagued 2004 vote recommended a number of changes in the election process.
The biggest change would have seen only producers who have delivered to the CWB at least 40 tonnes of grain in one of the previous two years receive a ballot, which would have reduced the voters list by about half. However the panel’s recommendations have not been implemented.
Election co-ordinator Peter Eckersley of Meyers Norris Penny said he’s confident that the board has fixed the voters list problems, which resulted in an unsuccessful legal challenge to the 2004 election result.
“They’ve brought in new procedures to ensure the voters list and the district assignments are accurate and no one is left off the voters list,” he said.
