A fledgling farm group wants to pressure the federal government into holding a farmer vote on the Canadian Wheat Board’s sales monopoly on western grown wheat, malting barley and exported feed barley.
Producers from across the Prairies gathered in Saskatoon last week to form the new lobby group.
The organizers weren’t the usual players in the decades-old debate. Founders of Real Voice for Choice come from a variety of backgrounds, many with memberships and roles in canola commodity groups.
The group opposes the federal government’s position that farmer plebiscites on changes to CWB operations cause unnecessary delays. It also opposes the government’s position that the board has no mandate to operate as a single desk seller.
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“The Canadian Wheat Board Act clearly gives farmers the right to choose whether or not we have a dual market,” said Earl Mickelson, a farmer from Hagen, Sask., and co-chair of the new group for Saskatchewan.
“The federal election wasn’t fought on this issue despite what the government says now. In fact, most western Conservative candidates kept their heads down on this issue during the (federal election) campaign.”
Real Voice for Choice has three co-chairs, one from each prairie province.
Alberta co-chair Laurence Nicholson of Seven Persons is a producer and former director of the Canola Council of Canada.
“Most of us were just amazed that the government thinks we would just accept their narrow, ideological view on this issue,” said Nicholson, a one-time Alberta Wheat Pool policy specialist. “Who is the government serving here? If it’s the majority of farmers, then let’s just be sure of that and hold the (farmer) vote.”
Nicholson said the group’s membership cuts a wide ideological swath through the western grain industry.
Manitoba co-chair Larry Bohdanovich has led canola producers in his province to vote in favour of asking the CWB to consider selling up to 500,000 tonnes of the oilseed on behalf of growers in an experiment that would see the board expand its marketing reach to other crops.
That hasn’t happened, but Bohdanavich said his right to choose whether the board continues to be western farmers’ exclusive marketer of wheat and barley is being threatened by a vocal minority of producers who are tied to the Conservative party.
“Real Voice for Choice isn’t tied to a party; not to an ideology; not to a farm group,” said the grain grower from Grandview, Man. “We want a vote on a clear question that asks us if we support single desk selling or we don’t. That is what this is about.”
David Anderson, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the CWB, did not return phone calls seeking comment on the group.
Conservative MP Carol Skelton’s Saskatoon office served as the backdrop for the Real Voice group’s news conference on Sept. 26. She was not available for comment, but a staff spokesperson said she welcomed the different points of view from the new group.
