OTTAWA – The Canadian Wheat Board will be farmer-controlled and less powerful if the federal government accepts the recommendations of the Western Grain Marketing Panel.
In a unanimous report made public July 9, the nine-member panel appointed last year by federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale recommends a thorough revamping of the board and its powers.
It rejected pro-posals that present powers be preserved and the wheat board’s jurisdiction be expanded.
Goodale said he will respond by autumn, after giving farmers until the end of August to comment. Amendments to the Canadian Wheat Board Act likely will be presented to Parliament this fall.
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The panel, headed by Saskatoon lawyer Tom Molloy, recommended:
- Feed barley export sales be removed from the board monopoly “as soon as possible” and moved to an open market system. Malting barley would remain under the board.
- Marketing of most wheat for export and domestic human consumption be left under the board, but farmers could choose to remove at least 25 percent of their sales from the pooling system by asking for spot or forward cash prices from the board.
- Organic grain would be removed from board jurisdiction.
- A board of directors of between 11 and 15 members, with a majority elected by farmers, would replace the existing government-appointed commissioner system. The trade could appoint at least three, the government at least two and farmers would elect at least six members of the board.
The panel urges the government to quickly replace the commissioners with an Ottawa-appointed board of directors which then would organize the elections. Once elected directors control the board, the existing elected advisory committee would be disbanded and an executive officer would be hired to run day-to-day business.
- More flexibility for the board to make cash grain purchases, to pay farmers for grain storage, to close pools earlier and to allow farmers to cash out of the pools.
- Issues of durum pricing and marketing “of concern to both Canada and the U.S.” should be referred to a binational committee of farmers and industry representatives for resolution. Until that happens, “durum wheat should continue to be marketed through the CWB.”
- The jurisdiction of the wheat board not be expanded to add other grains, oilseeds or special crops.
The panel members urged the government to end the uncertainty about grain marketing rules.
“The panel is strongly of the view that the debate about the marketing system for western grains which has been increasingly divisive is counterproductive to the longer term needs of the industry,” it said.
Goodale, in a letter that was expected to be sent to all prairie farmers, accepted the point. “I intend to move as quickly as I can to assess the panel’s report and to respond.”
