Reg Alcock, a 55-year-old Winnipeg management information systems consultant appointed Dec. 12 as the minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board in the new federal cabinet, says it is up to farmers to decide the fate of the board monopoly.
Moments after he was sworn in as Treasury Board secretary also responsible for the Winnipeg-based board, Alcock said his predecessor Ralph Goodale had given prairie farmers effective control over the CWB.
“We talk to farmers,” he said when asked about political campaigns to end the monopoly. “They effectively operate the wheat board. If they feel it is meeting their needs, terrific. If they don’t, we’ll have another dialogue, but I’m not going to decide that.”
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Alcock, senior minister from Manitoba in the new Paul Martin government and for 10 years a backbencher, was a surprise choice as wheat board minister, a responsibility Goodale had held since 1993 through three other portfolios.
A Goodale aide said the Regina MP was unable to retain a financial responsibility like the wheat board once he was elevated to finance minister in the new government.
“You can’t be in charge of the money and also in charge of something that could make a demand on the money.”
Alcock’s only previous public involvement in wheat board-related issues was his pivotal role in organizing a successful resolution at the last Liberal policy convention supporting more competition in the rail system and more open running rights.
His appointment was one of many in the new federal government that will affect rural and Western Canada.
Toronto tax lawyer Jim Peterson, whose parents farmed in Saskatchewan but moved east during the Depression, was appointed international trade minister. He said in an interview he has not yet reviewed the file on agriculture in the World Trade Organization nor the various agricultural issues that range from wheat duties in the United States to cattle trade bans flowing from bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
“But I know these are important files and I will be getting up to speed on them quickly,” he said in a brief interview Dec. 13.
Hamilton, Ont.-area MP Tony Valeri, a 10-year MP and formerly a life insurance executive, is the new transport minister with no public record on western grain transportation issues.
Rey Pagtakhan, a Winnipeg MP and former veterans affairs minister, is now in charge of western economic diversification.
Barrie, Ont., MP Aileen Carroll replaces Susan Whelan as minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency.
