The Battle of the Board is under way.
In the wake of last week’s election, exultant anti-single desk farm groups were urging the new Conservative government to move quickly to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s export monopoly.
All the government needs to do, they said, is instruct the board to issue blanket no-cost export permits for wheat and barley to any individual or company that wants one and allow domestic processors to buy those grains directly from farmers.
The legal arguments in support of such a move are convoluted, said Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association executive director Blair Rutter, but the association has concluded the government doesn’t have to change the CWB Act to end the monopoly.
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“The wheat growers are convinced the government has the authority to bring in regulations to implement marketing choice, without legislation,” he said.
Pro-single desk groups maintain that’s not the case.
They point to section 47.1 of the CWB Act, which requires that a vote be held among producers before any commodity is added to or removed from the board’s jurisdiction.
For the new government to end the single desk by regulation would fly in the face of the act and deny farmers the right to choose the kind of marketing system they want, they said.
“Anything short of actually opening up the act and making proper legislative change would be on extremely thin ice,” said National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells.
As for the board itself, a spokesperson said that while the marketing agency doesn’t want to debate the legalities of the situation, it believes section 47.1 lays out a clear pathway for changing its existing marketing mandate.
“That section reflects the philosophy that farmers, not government, should decide the future of the wheat board,” said Maureen Fitzhenry.
Section 47.1 states the minister shall not bring in a bill to exclude wheat or barley from the marketing provisions of the act, or add any other grains, unless two pre-conditions are met: first, the minister must consult with the board about the changes, and second, producers of the grain in question must vote in favour of the change.
Fitzhenry said that by urging the government to ignore that section, the wheat growers are saying the single desk selling should be ended without consulting farmers.
“The wheat growers are ignoring not only the central issue, which is that farmers should have the right to choose their marketing system, but are also ignoring everything that has happened since Jan. 1, 1999.”
That’s when the revised CWB Act went into effect and gave control over the board to farmers through an elected board of directors.
Wheat growers president Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel said the results of the Jan. 23 federal election, which saw the anti-single desk Conservatives win virtually every rural seat on the Prairies, gives the new government authority to act on the issue.
“Clearly that tells me they have a mandate,” she said.
Meanwhile, a veteran Conservative MP cautioned those farm groups anxious for an end to the monopoly to be patient.
“Nothing is going to happen quickly,” said Gerry Ritz, MP for Battlefords-Lloyminster. “Any of these changes are going to take time.”
While the Conservatives favour an end to the single desk, the new government has higher priorities, he said, adding that a minority government is constrained by the need to work with other parties and build consensus.
