SASKATOON – The Canadian Wheat Board should be required to give export licences to farmers at no cost, says an application before the Federal Court of Canada.
Canadian Farmers for Justice, a group of several hundred prairie farmers campaigning to end the board’s export monopoly, filed the application in Federal Court in Edmonton last week.
The six-page notice of motion asks the court to declare the board has no legal authority over individual farmers who choose not to sell their wheat or barley to the marketing agency.
Read Also
Interest in biological crop inputs continues to grow
It was only a few years ago that interest in alternative methods such as biologicals to boost a crop’s nutrient…
And it suggests that farmers seeking an export licence be only required to fill out an affidavit stating the grain in question was grown on their own farm.
In essence, said the group’s spokesperson Jim Pallister, the group wants the court to declare that the wheat board is a voluntary organization.
Able to go own way
“We’re saying the wheat board can stay in control of export licensing, but those farmers who clearly have a desire (to market outside the CWB system) should be able to totally sever their relationship with the wheat board,” he said in an interview.
The wheat board declined to comment on the legal action.
Brian Hay, the federal justice department lawyer responsible for defending the board, also declined comment, saying he had not had a chance to read the court document.
“It’s been served on our office and we’ve shared it with the relevant clients,” he said. The department, which has 30 days to respond, is considering its options, which include asking the court to simply strike the application on technical legal grounds. “We’re looking at that option,” said Hay.
The argument put forward in the application, written by Farmers For Justice member Dan Creighton of Saskatoon, is that while the wheat board act gives the board authority to issue orders to the grain trade, that doesn’t include individual farmers who choose not to sell to the board or take out a CWB permit book.
Those farmers should be able to obtain a licence at no cost by swearing ownership of the grain, similar to the rules that Creighton says govern farmers outside the CWB’s designated area.
In the brief, he said the board is breaking the law in the way it deals with export licences.
“Parliament has not authorized the powers of the board to extend beyond the parties who have voluntarily or contractually placed themselves under the umbrella of the CWB,” he said.
Pallister said similar arguments will be put forward when the more than 100 farmers facing charges for violating customs regulations come to trial.
“Since no one seems to have the guts to make a political initiative out of it, perhaps we need a ruling in the courts that would do what GATT did to the Crow, and take it out of the hands of the politicians,” he said.
The Crow Benefit rail transportation subsidy for grain was ended last year with the federal government saying it contravened the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, an international trade deal.
