OTTAWA – Conflicting advice about how to handle reform of the Canadian Wheat Board continues to flow into Ralph Goodale’s office.
The federal agriculture minister has said he will listen to advice until Aug. 31, then begin to decide.
Last week, two national farm groups offered starkly different opinions.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association urged Ottawa to give prairie grain farmers the right to export wheat and barley outside the Canadian Wheat Board.
“Most cattlemen, as well as most farmers in Western Canada, see that there will be change,” CCA vice-president and southern Alberta feedlot operator Ben Thorlakson said in an Aug. 16 interview. “It is inevitable. Everyone is just asking when.”
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The CCA will write to Goodale, complaining that it should not be a crime for grain farmers to sell their own product into the best market possible.
“This is a philosophical position,” said southwest Saskatchewan rancher Carl Block. “Our industry has always believed in individual choice. You shouldn’t be jailed or fined for selling what you own.”
On the other side is the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
Last week, after several weeks of internal debate to reach agreement, the CFA wrote Goodale to say it wants the government to maintain the wheat board’s export monopoly, while making it a more flexible marketing agency.
“And it is standing policy that any major changes be tested in a vote of (wheat board) permit holders,” federation president Jack Wilkinson said.
Changes wanted
He said some of the federation’s prairie members had difficulty with the issue because while most believe changes are needed to the wheat board, they are not prepared to go as far as the recommendations of the Western Grain Marketing Panel.
The panel proposed the government remove from the board’s sales monopoly unlicensed and organic wheat, feed barley and allow farmers to sell 25 percent of their other wheat on the open market.
In some cases, the implications of changes proposed are not clear.
He said failure of ministers to make regular reforms to the board in the past has led to a build up of demands now for major change, which many farmers are finding hard to swallow.
Wilkinson noted his involvement with the wheat board issue began when Progressive Conservative Charlie Mayer was the responsible minister.
He said Mayer would have abolished the board given the time and so he was not interested in reforming it to make it work better.
Meanwhile, by Aug. 19 with two weeks left before his Aug. 31 deadline, Goodale’s office reported that approximately 2,200 letters on the board had been received from prairie farmers.
