Even as it became more likely that government promises to democratize the Canadian Wheat Board will die with a late April election call, Liberals introduced changes aimed at making the plan more appealing to farmers.
The bill to amend the Canadian Wheat Board Act remained mired in the Commons agriculture committee despite efforts by the Liberals to win quick approval and have it sent back to the Commons for debate.
The committee will complete its hearings this week, sending it back to the Commons.
However, with fewer than eight parliamentary days remaining before an expected April 27 call for a June 2 election, the chances of final Commons debate and Senate approval became slimmer.
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As they moved their amendments to Bill C-72, Liberal MPs said they were responding to criticisms they had heard during public hearings. They wanted to make farmer control of the board more certain and to give the board more power.
Reform MPs scoffed at the Liberal amendments, arguing they still left the federal government, cabinet and agriculture minister with the power to intervene, overturn or direct the board whenever they wanted.
Federal officials insisted that was not the intent.
When Saskatchewan Reform MP Elwin Hermanson argued the unelected president should not be a member of the board that will oversee the operations of the bureaucracy he will run, Liberals overruled him.
Hermanson said it is common sense that the president, effectively the chief executive officer, would be in a conflict sitting on the board that makes the policies he is supposed to administer. He could be a pawn for the people who appointed him. He said a large, successful company like Saskatchewan Wheat Pool does not allow the CEO to sit on the board.
Liberals said it is only logical and common practice outside the co-operative sector to include the CEO on the board.
“I don’t see it as a conflict at all,” said Liberal MP Wayne Easter. “I see it moving ahead in unison.”
Hermanson had a quick response. “I can’t believe the people on the government side are so dumb or so power hungry to push this through.”
How the act would change
Liberal MPs proposed to change the wheat board bill to:
- Guarantee there are at least eight farmer-elected directors on a 15-member board.
- Give the board the power to elect its own chair and to set their own pay, the chair’s pay and the government-appointed president’s pay.
- Remove the original wording that board members serve “at pleasure” of the minister and instead set out clear rules on how they could be dismissed.
- Leave appointment of the president with the government and make the president a member of the board of directors, but give the rest of the board the mandate to review the president’s performance and to recommend dismissal if required.
- Force the agriculture minister to consult with board members before setting the rules for elections to the board, including geographical requirements and a provision to stagger elections so not all directors are up for renewal at once.
