To the Editor:
In all of the news releases from the (federal) minister of agriculture (Gerry Ritz), I have not once heard him state he is eliminating the Canadian Wheat Board. The only people that are talking this way are some of the CWB directors with their “sky is falling” comments.
In the prairie provinces, we have producers who wish to market the production from their farms independent of the CWB, as do some wheat producers in Ontario. We also have producers who wish to maintain the status quo just like the producers in Ontario who still have the right to market through their wheat board. Should one group be able to hold a hammer over the other group? That would be considered a violation of rights in society today. And we all know, you cannot violate personal rights and freedoms. It’s against the law in Canada.
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The people I have found that are most upset about the change that is coming on Aug. 1, 2012, are the grain companies. They see their gravy train set fees for handling CWB grains going the way of handling canola, which at times only allows them to charge as little as $10 per tonne as opposed to something in excess of $50 per tonne for wheat. Seems competition makes handling fees flexible, that should be good for the wheat producer.
Instead of sucking our final payment account dry with another ballot, it would have been a better use of producers’ money to invest in a business plan to create the “New Western Canadian Wheat Board,” so the people who wish to continue to market as a co-operative would be able to do so. Besides, you just released the results of your most recent phone survey which showed the majority of people want marketing choice, not just single desk, are you saying that survey was incorrect?
So CWB directors, get your finger off the self-destruct button and move
this along and allow everyone the marketing choice they want.
Roy Bailey, Milden, Sask.
