OTTAWA – As the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange matures, it might be moved out from under the watchful eye of the Canadian Grain Commission, federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale suggested.
He told the House of Commons agriculture committee last week that a proposed National Securities Commission might be a better overseer for the Winnipeg exchange.
Under the act that governs the exchange, the grain commission is the overseer in extraordinary circumstances when self-regulation is called into question.
“As the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange matures, broadens, gets involved in more kinds of trading activity, I think there is a legitimate question to ask about where the oversight function ought to reside,” Goodale said May 7.
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Should grain-related legislation and a grain industry agency have a role “if what is being traded is more diverse, a whole range of other potential commodities including metals and so forth other than grain?”
Goodale was responding to questions from Manitoba Reform MP Jake Hoeppner, who has complained repeatedly about the exchange and its handling of the 1994 canola futures contract issue.
Hoeppner told the minister the canola incident proved the grain commission is not the proper regulator for the commodity exchange.
“When you have a grain commission and grain traders regulating themselves or partially regulating themselves, I think it’s not a healthy situation,” said Hoeppner.
Goodale said the issue is appropriate to consider, but he rejected the suggestion that the grain commission could be in a conflict of interest in regulating the exchange.
