Federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl wants the Canadian Wheat Board to help plan what some say would be its own demise.
But the head of the CWB says the agency would be reluctant to assist government in stripping the agency of its single desk marketing powers.
Strahl said last week the government is determined to implement a dual market and will be looking to the wheat board for input into the process.
“I’d be surprised if there hasn’t been a lot of thought put into this at the wheat board already,” he said after a day-long, closed door meeting with dual market proponents.
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He said the board has undoubtedly done contingency planning for a wide variety of scenarios, including how it would operate in the event it lost its single desk marketing powers.
“We think the wheat board and people that are on the wheat board are key to helping us design the kind of dual market wheat board that can be strong going forward.”
That could involve discussion of issues of governance, corporate structure, equity and financing requirements, research and marketing.
“My hope is they have got some good ideas and we can make use of them, “Strahl said.
CWB chair Ken Ritter acknowledged that the board has looked at the question of how it would operate in a dual market environment, but added the agency isn’t interested in offering advice on how to dismantle the single desk.
“Obviously we’ve looked at all scenarios, as any prudent board would.”
He said the board is more interested in talking to the minister about how it can be restructured to enhance its ability to extract maximum value from the marketplace for farmers within the context of the single desk.
“We want to sit down and talk to him about how we can build an organization that adds value and benefits for farmers and that gives farmers more market power,” he said.
However, Strahl made it clear in his remarks after the July 27 meeting in Saskatoon with some 25 dual market supporters that he isn’t interested in hearing about anything that involves retaining the single desk.
“If that’s their bottom line, then it will be hard to engage with them,” he said. “There is no doubt about what the government’s position is, that we’re moving to a dual market.”
Strahl also said the government and all the participants in the meeting were unanimous in the view that the board be given the tools to ensure it can be strong, viable, profitable and effective in a dual market.
The details on exactly what that means remain to be worked out, but the minister said he’s confident it can be done.
“The consensus is that there is a lot of good people, a lot of good expertise and a lot of contacts that are going to set the CWB up for a very viable commercial operation moving forward.”
He added that the dual marketers seem to have more faith in the board’s ability to survive and prosper than the board itself.
Board officials, single desk supporters and many economists argue the board’s value to farmers is based on its single desk powers that enable it to differentiate Canadian grain in world markets and extract premium prices. They also say that with no physical assets such as country and terminal elevators, it would be unable to compete with well-established companies in a commercial setting.
Ritter dismissed the suggestion that the dual marketers want to retain a strong wheat board as “political posturing.”
