A federal report arising from a meeting between federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl and a select group of farm, grain industry, government and academic representatives, is calling on Ottawa to move quickly to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board’s sales monopoly and replace it with an open market.
The report states the government should create a task force to figure out how to do it and should set a target date of Aug. 1, 2007, for full implementation of an open market.
It also urges the government to take interim steps toward an open market by ending the board’s single desk authority for barley and instructing the CWB to issue no-cost export licences.
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The report is a summary of recommendations from the July 27 Saskatoon meeting, to which the government invited industry groups and officials who support the Conservatives’ campaign promise to end the board’s sales monopoly on western grown wheat and export barley.
The report says the goal is to create an environment in which a CWB without single desk marketing and without any government financial support could compete against multinational grain companies.
“By adapting and building on its existing base, and with strong government direction, it was felt that the CWB could successfully compete with large international grain companies,” it said.
That suggestion, at the core of the government’s proposal, brought a strong rebuff from the wheat board.
“We are a corporation with no assets and annual sales of $3 to $4 billion, being asked to compete in the international marketplace with companies with sales of $30 to $60 billion who have their own processing facilities, grain origination and multiple origin purchasing,” said CWB director Ian McCreary.
He said it’s irresponsible of government to tell farmers they can have an open market and a strong CWB.
“It’s simply a way to misrepresent a policy to try to make it more palatable to a broader cross-section,” he said. “Let’s be honest about it – you don’t want the board to survive and prosper, you want to get rid of it.”
Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association president Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel said the report provides good recommendations for moving forward with marketing choice.
“Moving to a market choice environment will create more profitable pricing opportunities for farmers and be a catalyst for more wheat and barley processing in western Canada.”
The National Farmers Union dismissed the recommendations as ignoring the wishes of the majority of farmers and called on the government to hold a plebiscite.
It also criticized the report for saying meeting participants said changes should be made quickly without getting “bogged down in the details.”
Those details, said NFU president Stewart Wells, show that farmers benefit from the single desk to the tune of $800 million annually.
