Two recently departed directors from the Canadian Wheat Board have distinctly different views on Ottawa’s approach to restructuring the grain marketing organization.
Ross Keith said the government is behaving recklessly by plowing ahead with its plans to dismantle the board’s single desk without adequate consultation or regard for the consequences.
“The minister said it was going to be an evolution,” said Keith, who was fired by CWB minister Chuck Strahl on Oct. 26 after eight years as a director.
“It looks more like a hatchet job than an evolution.”
Read Also
Genesis Fertilizers seeks government funding
Genesis Fertilizers is actively seeking funding from government and a strategic partner. The company dispelled a rumour that DL E&C has abandoned the project.
Bonnie DuPont, who left the board voluntarily, said she thinks the agency should have worked with the government in recent months to find common ground or influence its plans.
“The position I was taking was to encourage the board to find a way to work this through with government,” she said.
DuPont resigned from the $20,000 a year directorship Oct. 3, to be effective Nov. 30, but left the board last week at the government’s request. Shortly thereafter, she was appointed a director with the Bank of Canada.
The departure of the two directors has provided Strahl with an opportunity to appoint replacements who agree with the government’s plans to institute an open market for wheat and barley.
Strahl moved quickly to fill one vacancy with the appointment last week of former grain company executive and consultant Bruce Johnson of Regina, an open market proponent who was a member of the federally appointed task force on the CWB’s future.
While Keith was an avowed supporter of the single desk – a position he said he came to adopt as he saw the benefits of such a system – DuPont didn’t want to put herself into either camp.
“I’d identify myself as a supporter of western Canadian grain farmers,” she said. “I’m not a hard line supporter one way or the other.”
Dupont, a vice-president with the Calgary energy company Enbridge Inc., was appointed by the previous Liberal government mainly for her expertise in human resources.
She said the debate over the future of the single desk has led to a heavier workload in recent months. That and the increasingly fractious nature of board meetings contributed to her decision to step down.
Keith, a lawyer, farmer and property developer in Regina, was fired after an exchange of letters initiated by Strahl, in which he expressed support for the single desk, criticized the government’s plans and accused the minister of misleading people by suggesting that a strong CWB can exist without the single desk authority.
In an interview, Keith said his advice to the government was to exercise more prudence and caution in making changes to the existing grain marketing system.
Keith said he wasn’t surprised by his firing, but he wanted to remain a director until his term expired Dec. 31, 2007. He also left the door open to seeking compensation from the government for his early dismissal.
