OTTAWA (Staff) — What kind of a Canadian Wheat Board would a Reform government want to oversee?
According to arguments presented to the House of Commons last week, it would be a farmer-controlled board that likely would be far less powerful than it is now.
Reform leader Preston Manning said the practice of government-appointed commissioners would end. They would be farmer elected.
And farmers would be encouraged to consider subjecting the board to greater “competition” in foreign and domestic markets while giving farmers the option of taking a pooled price or a cash price.
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He said expanding the number of grains the board can handle would be considered but farmers who think they can do a better job making their own export arrangements would be allowed to bypass the board.
“In order for grain producers to benefit from every available opportunity, we believe that producers should be given the opportunity to democratically examine their organizational and jurisdictional options,” said Manning.
Vegreville MP Leon Benoit was more blunt about reform plans.
Unlimited competition
He said “reform” of the board would include allowing unlimited competition.
“Farmers feel stifled and unfairly limited by the monopolistic powers of the board,” he said.
“While there is considerable support for maintaining some aspects of the Canadian Wheat Board, farmers want the ability to bypass the board when they feel it is not doing a good job of marketing or when they see better opportunities which they can access directly or through a grain company.”
While the board’s pooling system also would be optional, it would retain the ability to distribute cash advances and to sell on credit if other countries continue to do the same.
Benoit said Reform is not talking about abolishing the wheat board but about making it more farmer responsive.
