The federal Conservative government will introduce Canadian Wheat Board Act amendments if necessary in this parliamentary session to end the barley marketing monopoly, says agriculture minister Gerry Ritz.
“If it comes down to needing legislation, yes, it is on the table in this session,” said the minister.
In an Oct. 19 interview, he suggested it might not face resistance from the CWB. While board leaders have opposed Conservative efforts to end the monopoly during the past 20 months, Ritz suggested that is changing.
“They are working in a transitional way to advancing the open marketing of barley,” said the minister. “They have read the tea leaves. They take seriously the 62 percent of western Canadian farmers who want to see change.”
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At least one of the opposition parties would have to vote for a CWB bill to get it into law and based on past votes, that is unlikely.
“The other way is for the board of directors to say we’re not going to stand in the way of moving in that direction,” said Ritz.
“That’s always a possibility and I look forward to having those discussions with the wheat board.”
CWB chair Ken Ritter said the board has never considered that option.
It understands farmers want changes, including cash prices for barley and delivery when they want.
“We have said we understand farmers want changes and we are going to change,” he said Oct. 22. “But it is absolutely within the context of retaining the monopoly.”
However, Ritter agreed with the minister that relations between the CWB and the government have taken a turn for the better under the new minister, who is Ritter’s MP.
“It has been our experience so far that we have had a significantly better relationship with minister Ritz,” he said.
“There isn’t that confrontational motivation with him that there was before” when Chuck Strahl was minister.
Ritz said the government is prepared to try legislation if that is necessary, particularly if it loses its appeal of a July 31 court ruling that the government could not end the monopoly through regulation.
His comments followed a pledge in the throne speech that said the government would recognize the views of farmers as expressed in the recent plebiscite on barley by enacting marketing choice.
The line drew praise from anti-monopoly farm groups and outrage from opposition critics.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen said the pledge was not necessary.
“Of all the issues in agriculture the government needs to address, this is hardly a priority,” he said. “This is not what we need the government to be focusing its time and attention on.”
Meanwhile, Ritz also confirmed that if the parliamentary session continues into the winter without an election, he plans to introduce amendments to the Canada Grain Act to update the grading and variety registration system and perhaps the structure of the Canadian Grain Commission as recommended by the House of Commons agriculture committee last year when Ritz was its chair.
“It’s ready to go,” he said of the legislation, which could be tabled before Christmas. “The greatest thing I’m excited about is changing the grading system that’s been holding us back in innovation and developing new varieties. We’re the last vestige of KVD (kernel visual distinguishability) in the world.”
He said the Western Grain Elevator Association has cautioned against moving too quickly.
“I said, ‘folks, you buy grain in other areas of Western Canada. How do you grade there?’ And then they went quiet. There are ways to do it.”
