The fate of the Canadian Wheat Board could hinge on the outcome of the Jan. 23 federal election.
One of the parties vying for power, the Conservatives, is committed to ending the CWB’s single desk marketing powers and allowing farmers to sell their wheat and barley either through the board or to companies operating in the open market.
In the last few elections, rural voters in Western Canada have generally voted Conservative, but the party hasn’t formed a government since 1993 and has had no chance to implement that promised change.
Read Also
Petition launched over grazing lease controversy
Battle continues between the need for generation of tax revenue from irrigation and the preservation of native grasslands in southern Alberta rural municipality.
Successive Liberal governments have supported the single desk and said it’s up to farmers, through CWB director elections, to determine the board’s future, not politicians.
The New Democrats, meanwhile, have consistently expressed strong support for the single desk.
Again this time around, the parties are presenting those same positions.
“Our policy is that farmers should have a choice,” said David Anderson, Conservative MP from Cypress Hills-Grasslands.
The Conservatives’ official agriculture platform states “western grain farmers should be able to participate voluntarily in the CWB.”
Proponents of a dual market, or voluntary wheat board competing in the open market against grain companies, say it would preserve the marketing agency while providing farmers with a choice in how to sell their grain.
CWB officials and supporters of the board’s monopoly on export sales of western grown wheat and barley call that a false choice. They maintain the board’s value to farmers depends on its ability to extract premium prices as a single desk exporter.
“Obviously we think that a dual market is a duplicitous position to put in front of farmers,” said Deanna Allen, vice-president of communications and farmer relations for the CWB.
“If the single desk is gone, it is a death sentence for the organization.”
Despite that, she said, the board is not comfortable making recommendations on how farmers should cast their ballots in the federal election.
But the board does plan to send a document to all candidates outlining issues of concern to western farmers, including the single desk, and correcting misinformation that arises about the board.
Nettie Wiebe, a New Democrat candidate in the Saskatchewan riding of Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, reiterated her party’s strong support for the board’s monopoly.
“We would never give any ground on that,” she said, adding she has no doubt a Conservative government would move quickly to eliminate or undermine the CWB’s single desk status.
Gary Anderson, a Liberal candidate in Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre, said the party’s support for the single desk was made evident in recent World Trade Organization negotiations, where the government fought successfully to protect the board’s export monopoly.
“We look at it as one of the things that really empowers farmers, to sell through a single desk and secure higher prices,” he said.
The Liberals have also said any changes to the board’s marketing powers should come from farmers themselves, through the biennial elections of CWB directors.
In past CWB director elections, single-desk marketing has been the top issue, and farmers in Western Canada have consistently elected candidates who support the single desk.
That seems to be at odds with federal elections, in which western rural voters generally vote for Conservatives who would remove the single desk.
Art Macklin, a CWB director from Grande Prairie, Alta., said that suggests most farmers don’t pay attention to the CWB issue when casting their ballots in a federal election.
“I think western Canadian farmers make their voting decisions on a whole host of issues other than the wheat board,” he said, citing gun control, financial accountability and social issues such as same-sex marriage.
He doesn’t believe a Conservative government would have a mandate to end the board’s single desk authority.
The true test of support for the single desk is the CWB director elections, he said, and governments should respect that. The only other fair way to deal with the issue would be to hold a referendum that asks farmers to choose between the board and the open market, but not a dual market.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association shares the Conservatives’ goal of eliminating the board’s monopoly powers, but isn’t formally endorsing any party in the upcoming vote.
Association vice-president Dean Klippenstine said the monopoly is more likely to be ended as a result of world trade negotiations rather than domestic political action, so in that sense it doesn’t matter which party wins.
Terry Pugh of the National Farmers Union said while the union supports the CWB single desk, it wouldn’t advise farmers to vote solely on that issue. He said farmers should quiz candidates about a number of important farm issues, including trade, biotechnology and farm income.
