In a clear signal to the Conservative government that it could not get legislation through this minority Parliament to weaken or end the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, opposition MPs decisively defeated a private member’s proposal last week that would have marked a small step in that direction.
On Oct. 25, MPs voted 149-111 to defeat a proposal from Saskatchewan MP and House of Commons agriculture committee chair Gerry Ritz that would have allowed wheat and barley producers to bypass the CWB buy-back program if they were selling to farmer-owned, value-adding processing plants.
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Liberal, Bloc Québecois and New Democratic Party MPs united to defeat the bill.
Ritz said in debate on Bill C-300 that his purpose was “producer empowerment, who gets the final say with my product?”
He said he recognized the bill would be defeated and “I grit my teeth.”
He also vowed to send transcripts of opponents’ comments to farmers in his riding so they could see the decision was taken by MPs from outside the Prairies whose farmer constituents are not affected by the CWB monopoly.
“They are going to get the biggest laugh of their lives out of this.”
The final hour of debate on Ritz’s bill Oct. 24 was characterized by familiar arguments and strong language.
Thunder Bay Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff, chair of the Liberal rural caucus, said the Conservative plan to change the wheat board mandate without promising a producer vote and the decision to alter the CWB voters’ list mid-election is “a totalitarian approach to eliminating democracy.”
Winnipeg New Democrat Pat Martin, whose riding includes the wheat board head office, accused prime minister Stephen Harper of being fascistic in his tactics of stifling opposition and denying democratic votes for farmers.
He accused agriculture minister Chuck Strahl of taking a “heavy handed jackboot approach” to the wheat board issue.
Opposition MPs described the Ritz proposal as the thin edge of the wedge of a Conservative conspiracy to destroy the CWB monopoly before moving on to destroy supply management.
Conservatives had a different view.
Alberta MP Leon Benoit argued the attempt to give farmers the right to sell their grain to farmer-controlled prairie processing plants without going through the CWB buy-back program was an effort to give farmers more money-making
options.
“It widens the marketing choices for farmers and encourages more producers to get into the value added side of the business,” said the Vegreville-Wainwright MP.
Saskatchewan MP David Anderson, an avid opponent of the CWB monopoly and parliamentary secretary to the agriculture minister, said the chance to increase domestic markets is important to farmers.
