OTTAWA – This week or next, agriculture minister Ralph Goodale will announce a long-awaited investigation into the Canadian Wheat Board and the appropriate future form of grain marketing on the Prairies.
“It will be a very public process,” Goodale said last week. “There is a lot at stake.”
He has had a difficult time finding credible members for the five-to-seven-person panel, to ensure that the makeup of the group does not become an issue.
The panel will have a number of jobs – creating a common vocabulary to debate the marketing issue, making information available and listening to the views of those who must live or die by the marketing system chosen.
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“In this process, no one is going to get away with a wild allegation,” he told reporters June 9.
“People will have to speak to the facts.”
It is Goodale’s way of responding to challenges and pressure from those who want to see the wheat board lose its monopoly on export sales. The minister has indicated he supports the wheat board system.
Charlie Penson (Reform-Peace River) called on the government to at least allow organic growers to market outside the board because there is too much bureaucracy in trying to use its system.
