The chair of the Senate agriculture committee last week predicted the Canadian Wheat Board will evolve from a crown selling agency to a grain marketing co-operative without the power of a government-legislated monopoly.
Saskatchewan Conservative senator Len Gustafson said that would give farmers the marketing choices he believes they want.
“My feeling is that in the end, choice is going to come,” he said in an interview. “Farmers want choice. I think in time you’ll see the board moving toward a co-operative grain company.”
The senator said his recent role chairing several months of committee hearings on the wheat board have convinced him the farmer mood has changed.
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But despite his own pro-choice leanings, Gustafson said it would be impossible to convince the government to end the board monopoly.
All in good time
“I don’t think it is the time now but it will happen,” he said.
“I think it would work. It would allow the wheat board to be one of the biggest co-operatives and at the same time give farmers the option they want.”
Critics of that idea note the wheat board would be handicapped by not owning a country collection system.
It would depend on using the facilities of other grain companies and there would be a conflict of interest as these companies decided whether to buy grain for themselves or on commission for the board.
