RED DEER, Alta. – Alberta’s plebiscite asking farmers how they want to sell their wheat and barley was a good exercise in democracy, says Alberta’s agriculture minister.
“Whatever the results, it will be a help for the industry. It will give a broad base of knowledge for all producers in the province,” Walter Paszkowski told the Alberta Barley Commission’s annual meeting.
About 30,000 wheat and barley producers were eligible to vote in the non-binding plebiscite. The results of the vote were to be announced Dec. 6.
Paszkowski said Alberta has just become the leading agricultural producing province in Canada. It also grows more than half the barley in the country. In 1995 there were 4.8 million acres seeded to barley and it is expected 5.5 million acres will be seeded next year.
Read Also
Research looks to control flea beetles with RNAi
A Vancouver agri-tech company wants to give canola growers another weapon in the never-ending battle against flea beetles.
That growth will not continue if farmers have a “regulatory albatross around their neck,” Paszkowski said, referring to provincial and federal government regulations that he said hamper farmers’ marketing decisions, including the wheat board’s export selling monopoly.
Without reductions in regulation, including changes to the Canadian Wheat Board, further growth by Alberta producers will be stymied, he told the partisan crowd who generally support dual marketing.
“Why is it that only Western Canadian farmers don’t have the freedom to choose?”
The plebiscite asked farmers if they wanted the freedom to sell their wheat or barley to any market, including the Canadian Wheat Board.
“Alberta’s wheat and barley plebiscite was not about the Canadian Wheat Board. It is a vote of choice. It is a way to open up some market choices – a means to give producers the right to choose,” said Paszkowski.
Art McElroy of Calgary praised Paszkowski for creating an atmosphere of expansion.
“Thank you for getting government out of our lives and giving us the opportunity for getting on with our lives and to help us to get bureaucrats out of our lives that hamstring us,” said McElroy.
Some want board monopoly
Not all 400 producers at the meeting agreed with the minister. Norman Dyck, a farmer from Debolt in Paszkowski’s northern Alberta riding, didn’t want the wheat board to lose some of its monopoly powers.
“The Canadian Wheat Board is my and my neighbor’s marketing arm,” said Dyck.
By deregulating the market, Dyck wondered if the Alberta government was only “setting the climate” for multinational agriculture corporations like Cargill and ConAgra to take over the industry.
Paszkowski ended his remarks on the plebiscite by quoting former American president Abraham Lincoln: “I have faith in the people, the danger is in their being misled. Let them know the truth and the country is safe.”
