WINNIPEG – A Manitoba MP says at least three farmers have complained to the RCMP alleging the Canadian Wheat Board and several grain companies have used unfair business practices.
Jake Hoeppner (Reform-Lisgar-Marquette) said he knows three farmers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan who have lodged complaints with their local detachments, and he said he knows others who plan to complain.
Cpl. Dave Hoeft of the RCMP in Regina said he had not heard of any complaints, but said they would likely move from the local level to be looked at by a specialized section of the force, such as commercial crimes.
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Inspector Keith Thorne of the Winnipeg RCMP’s commercial crimes division said he is aware of one complaint, from Ken Lyne of Snowflake, Man. He said it is being reviewed by the Manitou detachment. The RCMP will determine if there are grounds for investigation.
Lyne said he doesn’t think he should be charged for services he didn’t use when shipping feed wheat to the U.S.
Wait until tempers cool
Lyne lives a few kilometres from the Canada/U.S. border. Last year he got a Canadian Wheat Board permit to ship tombstone-affected feed wheat to the U.S. He took his grain to a U.S. elevator directly from his bin. But Lyne said he got there at the height of U.S. farmers’ anger toward Canadian farmers, so the elevator manager wanted to wait until things died down before taking the grain.
After two months, the manager called Lyne in. However, this was beyond the two-month storage-free limit for wheat board export permits.
When he looked at his documents back in Canada, he realized he had been charged for storage, cleaning, freight and elevation for his 262-tonne shipment by his handling company, United Grain Growers.
“I was always aware that I could be nailed for this, it wasn’t wrongly billed or anything, it’s a policy. But it’s a pretty ridiculous thing, actually,” Lyne said.
“They didn’t even see my grain, and yet this was deducted off my cash ticket on the day of reckoning.”
Lyne said he’s waiting for the outcome of the complaint before paying the $1,700 storage fees, plus the accrued interest.
Deborah Harri, a spokesperson for the wheat board, said the matter is between Lyne and the handling company UGG.
She said in such cases, the board has a contract with the handling company, which in turn has a contract with the farmer. If the grain is not delivered during the call period of the contract, the wheat board will normally assess charges to the company, which in turn bills the farmer.
Can’t deliver on demand
“You have to have some means of ensuring that the grain comes into the system when you need it to come into the system,” Harri said. “It’s unrealistic to suggest that (farmers) should be able to deliver the grain whenever they want to.”
But she said in Lyne’s case, the call period was switched, so the board did not assess the charges to the company, although it appears the company chose to charge the farmer.
UGG has declined comment on the case saying customers’ business is kept confidential.
