OTTAWA (Staff) – The government plans to propose reforms to the Canadian Wheat Board this autumn, agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said last week.
He told the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture March 5 he will consider the recommendations of the panel studying grain marketing options.
By fall, he will present a legislative package to Parliament, Goodale told Alan Holt of Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, Alberta’s general farm lobby group.
“I would like to have a package of ideas to put before Parliament this autumn,” he said.
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It will be a “menu of proposals for change,” he said, without elaborating on the possibilities.
Wilf Harder of the Canadian Wheat Board advisory committee said he was surprised by the comment.
“That assumes it has to be changed,” he said in an interview. “What if the panel decides it is working well? He seems to be presuming.”
Delegates to the CFA meeting approved a resolution urging Goodale to be cautious and not to react only to the loudest complainers.
Meanwhile, Reform MPs continued their campaign last week to pressure the government into ending the wheat board monopoly in international sales of western-grown wheat and barley.
Yellowhead, Alta. MP Cliff Breitkreuz said studies show the wheat board is a costly marketing agency and votes and polls show most farmers in Alberta and Saskat-chewan want to have the option to sell outside the board.
Marketing freedom
The MP claimed both prime minister Jean ChrŽtien and agriculture minister Goodale have said “they favor allowing farmers their freedom to market their wheat and barley outside the Canadian Wheat Board.”
He said it is time the minister stayed “true to his promise and allow(ed) western grain farmers a direct voice through a plebiscite.”
Goodale was in Tokyo selling last week’s budget so Breitkreuz’ question was answered by the minister’s new parliamentary secretary, Jerry Pickard from southern Ontario.
Instead of challenging the assertion that ChrŽtien and Goodale favor the option of non-board sales, Pickard said the minister is consulting about “the problem” and will come forward with a plan.
