Changes proposed for the Canadian Wheat Board should make it less susceptible to challenges from the United States, wheat board minister Ralph Goodale said last week.
He told the House of Commons agriculture committee studying wheat board legislation that changes are needed to meet pressures in Canada.
But a side effect could be that the wheat board is less offensive and less a target for foreign critics.
“There are a number of changes in this package that have been devised domestically that may help take some of the steam out of some of the more misguided arguments that we hear from time to time that come from abroad to attack the Canadian Wheat Board,” Goodale said.
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He was responding to a question from NDP agriculture critic Dick Proctor about the short-term outlook for the board and whether the government was changing it from a ‘state trading enterprise’ to a mixed enterprise to make it less susceptible to foreign challenge.
Goodale insisted the changes were being “made in Canada by Canadians for our own good Canadian reasons.”
Alter guarantees
But he said one change that may help deflect American criticism is the move to alter the way initial prices are guaranteed by the government.
The new legislation includes a guarantee on the first initial price but no guarantee on any further price strengthening during the year. That would be covered by a contingency fund built from farmer contributions.
Goodale said it will resemble the U.S. loan rate system.
“Accordingly, the U.S. should have less reason to be critical of the Canadian system after this legislation because in terms of that initial payment guarantee, it won’t be all that different from what they do themselves,” said the minister.
Later, Proctor said in an interview he was trying to determine if the Liberal proposals for change were motivated by an attempt to save the wheat board or to launch it on the road to demise.
He said for the moment, he is willing to believe the Liberals when they say they are trying to defend the board.
During the next round of world trade talks beginning in 1999, American government officials have said they intend to push for rules to restrict ‘state trading enterprises’ like the wheat board.
The NDP, while promising to support the wheat board legislation and the move to farmer-elected directors, opposes the cash buying power as a detriment to the pooling system, which Proctor called the bedrock of the board system.
