Opponents of government plans to end the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly next year have been lobbying the Senate to slow the process down with “sober second thought.”
On Dec. 1, that hope seemed to be wishful thinking as the Senate gave Bill C-18 approval in principle after little more than two hours of debate.
This week, a series of rapid-fire committee hearings will set the stage for final approval before Parliament rises for a six-week Christmas break in mid-December.
“Western Canada has waited for this day since Sept. 27, 1943, when the mandatory Canadian Wheat Board came into being,” Manitoba Conservative senator Don Plett told the Senate Dec. 1.
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“Our government has made a commitment to western Canadian farmers that we will stand up for them and we will ensure they will not be treated as second-class farmers any longer.”
Plett, who is sponsoring the bill, said the Senate will move quickly.
Liberal senators, who are in the minority in the Senate, used colourful language to oppose the Conservative plan but allowed it to pass on a voice vote after several hours debate.
Saskatchewan Liberal Bob Peterson said farmers who want to use the board will be the victims.
Peterson used the 1997 elimination of prairie provincial hog marketing boards as an example.
“The majority of small family farm producers opposed the boards’ elimination in 1997 because they would be unable to compete with large-scale operations,” he said.
“Although the trend was already toward concentration in hog farming, the elimination of marketing boards caused many family farm producers to become disadvantaged and in many cases go out of business.”
Peterson said without the approval of farmers, senators will have to answer to history.
“What are you going to tell your grandchildren when they ask: where were you when they destroyed the Canadian Wheat Board?”
However, Liberal senators have shown no inclination to use parliamentary tactics to delay passage of the legislation beyond next week.
