CLAVET, Sask. – George Lawrence had never been to any kind of farm rally before.
But last week the 44-year-old farmer from Hanley, Sask., showed up at the community hall in this small town just east of Saskatoon to demonstrate his support for the Canadian Wheat Board.
“I guess I decided it’s time I took a stand,” he said in an interview after the meeting.
Lawrence didn’t just attend the meeting to listen to speeches and eat beef on a bun. He sat down afterwards and wrote a letter to federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale telling him not to take away some of the wheat board’s sales monopoly on wheat and barley.
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“It’s in place to protect us,” he said. “Why should we have it destroyed?”
Lawrence was among about 140 farmers who showed up for the Clavet rally, one of eight such meetings held across central Saskatchewan last week. Altogether more than 1,000 farmers attended the rallies, including about 300 at Humboldt Aug. 13.
“We are here today to reclaim ownership of the Canadian Wheat Board,” said Terry Tamke of Dundurn, who chaired the meeting.
Speakers rejected proposals from the Western Grain Marketing Panel to take unlicensed and organic wheat away from the board, to allow farmers to sell 25 percent of their wheat on the cash market and to put barley on the open market.
Concerns were raised about whether an elected CWB would retain government financial guarantees, and some farmers favored other crops being sold by the board.
During and after the meeting, farmers sat at the tables writing their letters to Goodale with pens and paper supplied by the organizers. More than 50 left letters piled on the table at the end of the day, while others said they’d be sending letters from home.
Garry Koop of Clavet, who said he would tell Goodale not to change a thing about the wheat board, is confident the rallies and letters will persuade the minister not to implement the panel recommendations that weaken the board’s monopoly.
“There’s enough meetings going on that the message will get across,” he said.
Frank Orosz, a farmer from Prud’homme and one of the organizers of the rallies, said the group will send to Goodale and all members of Parliament information from the meetings, describing the attendance and the discussion that took place.
Decision not made
When one farmer in the crowd questioned whether the rallies and letters were “just another exercise in futility,” like the ill-fated campaign to save the Crow rate, Orosz said he doesn’t think the government has decided what to do.
“I think Goodale is waiting for the people in support to do exactly what we’re doing, otherwise he’s under a lot of pressure from a small minority.”
Kevin Miller, who farms near Saskatoon, said many young farmers don’t seem to realize what they get from the board. They can sell their crop right off the combine or throughout the year for a predictable price, at minimal cost.
“Without the board … I need a grain company to market my grain and that’s going to cost me more for sure,” he said.
Langham-area farmer Mich Ozeroff, another member of the organizing committee, said the report of the grain marketing panel has finally spurred into action the great majority of farmers.
They were silent because they didn’t think the small minority who wanted to destroy the board would have any success, he said. But they now realize “this may be our last chance to speak out.”
