Like battle-ready troops facing off across a demilitarized zone, the two sides in the fight over the future of the Canadian Wheat Board holed up in two hotels on opposite sides of a downtown Saskatoon street last week.
On one side was an invitation-only meeting organized by the federal government, at which some 25 dual market proponents talked behind closed doors about how the Conservatives will fulfil their campaign promise to implement a dual market for wheat and barley.
On the other side, 250 farmers from across Western Canada listened and cheered as speaker after speaker – 19 in all, including farm leaders, politicians, grain industry groups and individual farmers – condemned the government’s tactics and warned that for those who want to save single desk marketing, it’s now or never.
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When the day’s activities, which also included an outdoor rally complete with protest signs and protest songs, finally ended, both sides said they were energized and ready for the battle ahead.
“I think it’s definitely time for farmers to step up to save the wheat board,” said Dennis Freadrich, who travelled from his farm at Forestburg, Alta., to attend the rally.
He said the tactics of the Conservative government in trying to push through a dual market without first giving farmers a chance to vote on whether they want a change are “beyond belief” and expressed fear that many farmers are complacent and don’t realize what’s happening.
Phil Dyck of Langham, Sask., agreed, saying he doesn’t buy the Conservatives’ argument that the results of the last federal election give them a mandate to bring in a dual market.
“They got elected in Western Canada for gun control and gay rights, not over the single desk,” he said, adding the results of CWB director elections make it clear that most grain growers support the single desk.
Like almost everyone who spoke at the rally or in the hotel hallways, he demanded the government put the issue before farmers in a plebiscite.
The rally was organized by the National Farmers Union and Canadian Federation of Agriculture to counter the government sponsored private meeting across the street.
Dual market supporters who participated in that session said they were happy with the progress made and confident that a dual market is only a matter of time.
“We look forward to the day when we are each free to sell our property to whomever we please,” said Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association president Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel.
She rejected the need for a plebiscite, saying she shouldn’t be forced to market her grain in a certain way by a vote of other farmers.
“If I’m mandated to market in a certain way, that’s dictatorship, not democracy,” she said.
Following the closed-door meeting, federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl reiterated the government’s commitment to bring in a dual market and defended the restricted invitation list, which didn’t include the CWB, the governments of Saskatchewan and Manitoba or farm groups that support the single desk.
Strahl said those who support the single desk would have had nothing useful to contribute to a discussion about how to set up a dual market, which was the purpose of the meeting.
However, former Liberal agriculture and CWB minister Ralph Goodale, speaking at the farmer rally, said the government’s actions are divisive for the farm community.
“It categorizes one particular group of farmers as the in-crowd, who have the minister’s attention and sympathy, while the rest of you, who appear to be the majority, are left out in the cold,” he told the crowd of single-desk supporters.
He said it’s also presumptuous of the government to start planning for a dual market before asking farmers whether they want one.
“There is no consultation on the whether, only on the how, and there is no semblance of fairness or open-mindedness,” said Goodale, adding the government is bound by the CWB Act to hold a plebiscite among farmers before changing the board’s marketing powers.
Strahl maintained there are a number of ways to change board operations, including regulatory orders or legislative changes, and a plebiscite is not necessarily required.
However, he also left the door open, saying “there has been no decision made on how farmers best should be consulted.”
Numerous speakers at the rally rejected Strahl’s view that the CWB can survive in a dual market and said the real goal of dual market proponents is to eliminate the board and turn the grain industry over to large multinational corporations.
They said the campaign for a dual market is driven by ideology, not good business practice or concern for farmers’ welfare.
