The Canadian Wheat Board faces significant changes to its operations no matter which political party wins the next election, representatives of both Liberals and Conservatives said last week.
A Conservative victory could lead to a quick end to the CWB marketing monopoly and its election process, said Conservative wheat board critic David Anderson.
“I don’t know who would be minister responsible but our policy remains that we support voluntary marketing,” Saskatchewan Conservative MP Anderson said in a May 6 interview.
“I would like to move quickly. I have some ideas on how we could move. I’m not going to play those out ahead of time but I want to listen to farm organizations to hear their ideas and then see if our suggestions fit with theirs.”
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Canadian Wheat Board minister Reg Alcock also said he has ideas for wheat board reform that would take form in amendments to the Canadian Wheat Board Act sometime next year if the Liberals are re-elected.
Right now, said Alcock, he is talking to wheat board officials about a variety of issues ranging from the electoral process to governance and the make-up of the board of directors, currently a combination of government-appointed and farmer-elected members.
Alcock said he plans to announce a review of the wheat board.
One issue hovering in the background is a preliminary agreement at World Trade Organization talks that government guarantees of initial prices and foreign sales financing agreements will have to be changed as a result of a commitment to end export subsidies in all forms.
Alcock said he has indicated in discussions with the board that he is open to all ideas for reform.
However, legislative changes will not happen before the next election, desired by opposition MPs this summer and promised by prime minister Paul Martin no later than February.
Anderson said if the Conservatives are in power by then, the agenda for change would be more radical.
There would be a move to end the sales monopoly and possibly a proposal that in future, Elections Canada supervise CWB elections that have become controversial.
He said the Conservatives do not have a strong view on issues such as whether CWB voters should be weighted according to the size of their operation or whether all 15 board directors should be elected rather than the 10 of 15 that are elected now.
Anderson said elements within the board also can see the writing of change on the wall, even though there is still a faction that resists change.
“I think what you are seeing behind the scenes is that basically the wheat board is recognizing it must deal with the issue of reform because of pressure,” he said.
The first layer of pressure comes from WTO talks where the Liberals “rolled over” and promised to end financial guarantees that help farmers while spending political capital defending the monopoly, said Anderson.
