The federal Conservatives continued to insist last week that confidential sales information provided by the Canadian Wheat Board to agriculture minister Chuck Strahl proves that the board has been selling to Algeria at a discounted price.
The CWB, its interim president Greg Arason and its political defenders insist the board has received premium prices in the Algerian market and Conservative claims are just a smear.
The debate played out in Parliament again when Liberal Wayne Easter demanded that the government concede it has been spreading false information about Algerian sales.
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Saskatchewan MP David Anderson, parliamentary secretary to Strahl, reiterated in the May 29 debate that “there is absolutely no evidence” in the CWB data that the board has been receiving a premium price in the Algerian market. However, the government is unable to prove its point, he added, because the board is insisting the data is commercially sensitive and confidential and won’t allow the numbers to be published.
The issue has been a long-running sideshow in the political battle over the future of the board, fuelled by a story in an Algerian newspaper in which an official said buying durum wheat from Canada saves the country tens of dollars per tonne.
The anti-monopoly Conservative government leaped on the story as proof that the CWB was not getting the best result for farmers through its monopoly.
The board and its supporters said the story was wrong and misleading. The CWB sent 10 years of contract data from Algerian sales to Strahl and last winter, Arason went before the House of Commons agriculture committee to assure MPs that while the numbers were confidential, they proved the board’s point.
Last week, Easter said Strahl should simply concede he was wrong.
“He has a responsibility to look at those figures and tell Canadians the truth,” he said.
“He can look at them and we would respect what he said in the House if he would give us information on the facts that the Canadian Wheat Board actually sold at a premium into those markets.”
Anderson said those are not the facts at all, adding Easter has an unhealthy obsession with the CWB issue.
