The takeover of Agricore United by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool last week had some MPs crowing about the growing strength of Canadian companies and others worrying that prairie farmers will end up the losers.
But even those fretting about declining competition did not advocate new powers for the federal Competition Bureau to control shrinking market choice.
Northeastern Alberta Conservative MP Leon Benoit said it is a negative development that only farmers can counteract.
“I just don’t know what governments can do about it,” the veteran MP and trade committee chair said. “I think it’s up to maybe new generation co-ops to start all over again and do what the co-op movement did many years ago. I really think the time is here for that kind of thing.”
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He said it is a symptom of a bigger problem of declining options for farmers.
“I have a real concern about it,” Benoit said. “I think the grain marketing industry is too concentrated already in Western Canada as is the packing industry, as is the auction market industry in Western Canada.”
Southwestern Saskatchewan Conservative MP David Anderson saw it as a good-news story.
The bureau did force Pool to sell some assets to James Richardson’s International, he noted.
“I think this is a case of the public policy system working well because in some areas it will actually increase competition,” he said.
Agriculture minister Chuck Strahl also was positive, assuming that the Competition Bureau made sure no harm would be done by the contraction of grain industry options.
“We have to rely on them generally to look after the interests of Canadians and the interests of farmers,” he said.
“I’m confident that big strong Canadian companies that have to go toe-to-toe with big strong international companies are sometimes a necessity. As long as competitive questions are answered by the bureau, the industry has to find ways to be competitive and that’s what’s been going on here.”
Former Liberal agriculture minister and current Regina MP Ralph Goodale has a less benign view of the corporate concentration.
“I do have concerns about this,” he said. “Competition in the grain business, whether it’s on the grain company side or the railway side, is preciously small and this will make the competition even smaller again.”
He said the corporate trend is particularly troubling at a time when the Conservatives are weakening public institutions including the Canadian Wheat Board and the Canadian Grain Commission that have traditionally defended farmers against corporate power.
“The combination of things here is what I see as worrisome: corporate concentration on one side with the diminution of agencies on the other side which have played a role of at least simulating conditions of greater competition,” said Goodale.
The Conservative government has promised new legislation to change the way the grain commission works, although farm groups have not yet seen proposals as a weakening of the commission.
“We’ll have to watch that legislation carefully to make sure it is not undermining the commission,” said Goodale. “I have my suspicions.”
