A coalition of five farm and rural organizations representing grain producers across the West is demanding the right to vote on the future of the Canadian Wheat Board.
“I think that’s really all that the farmers of Western Canada are asking for,” said David Rolfe of Elgin, Man., president of coalition member Keystone Agricultural Producers.
The five groups – KAP, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, Wild Rose Agricultural Producers of Alberta, the National Farmers Union and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities – have set aside their policy differences to focus their joint attention on two things:
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- Put together a balanced package of information assessing the value of the single desk and the CWB’s impact on various aspects of prairie agriculture.
- Convince the federal government to give farmers a chance to vote on any proposal to change the CWB’s structure or eliminate the single desk, as required by the CWB Act.
Officials with the five organizations emphasize the coalition is not taking a position on whether the wheat board’s sales monopoly on western wheat, malting barley and all export barley should continue or end.
“Let the majority of producers make the decision and let the chips fall where they may,” said APAS president Ken McBride of Kindersley.
They see the creation of the coalition as a significant development in the debate about the board’s future.
“I certainly hope the minister (and his associates) sit up and take notice,” said Rolfe.
“We do represent in these five groups a significant number of farmers from across Western Canada.”
The coalition will spend the next few weeks assembling a package of information about the single desk marketing system to ensure that farmers can make an informed decision in the event a plebiscite is held.
“A lot of people don’t have a full understanding of exactly what the board does, what some of the change might be and what would be the effect of those changes,” said WRAP president Bill Dobson of Paradise Valley.
“We need to get good factual information out there, not just ideology.”
The provincial governments of Saskatchewan and Manitoba have agreed to assist the coalition by conducting research and providing personnel.
Rolfe said producers need to understand how wide-ranging an impact the CWB has in their business in areas like rail transportation policy, freight rates, short lines, producer cars, the port of Churchill, market development, branding of Canadian wheat, grain quality control, research funding and trade.
“We need to raise all these issues and make farmers aware of the implications of the loss of the single desk,” he said.
“This could lead to fundamental changes in the nature of the grain industry in Western Canada,” said Rolfe.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa last week CWB minister Chuck Strahl continued to refuse to say whether the government will hold a plebiscite before making any changes to the grain marketing system.
He told opposition critics in Parliament that the government has no specific proposal for changing the board so there is nothing to have a vote on.
A federally appointed task force made up of open market proponents is developing a plan for how to make the transition to an open market and how the CWB could function in that environment, something single desk supporters say is impossible.
NFU president Stewart Wells said the coalition’s work could be seen as an alternative task force, looking at all aspects of the issue rather than focusing on how to set up an open market.
He also said the government’s refusal to say that it will follow the law and hold a plebiscite has got the attention of farmers who might not have been following the debate.
“I think a lot of people were sitting back and thinking the government couldn’t do this,” he said. “Our message is that people need to take this very seriously.”
