Conservatives delayed until autumn a parliamentary debate on a Liberal motion that any change to the mandate of the Canadian Wheat Board should require a producer vote before being implemented.
A motion by Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter aimed at forcing a farmer vote before any change in the CWB single desk monopoly was approved by the opposition majority on the House of Commons agriculture committee June 15. It was supposed to be tabled in Parliament by June 19 so opposition MPs could call for a debate on the issue last week.
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Instead, the Conservatives on the committee wanted to attach a dissenting opinion and waited until June 22 to table it in the Commons, the last day of parliamentary sittings before a summer break of almost three months. It means a debate over whether CWB permit book holders should have a vote on any change to the monopoly will have to wait until late September.
Meanwhile, the dissenting opinion sets out the divide between the opposition Liberals and governing Conservatives on the issue.
During an appearance before the agriculture committee, David Anderson, Conservative MP and parliamentary secretary to the agriculture minister, refused to commit to a permit book holder vote if the Conservatives decide to fulfil an election campaign promise to end the CWB monopoly.
Easter won majority opposition support with a motion that the government “prior to any legislative or regulatory action affecting the mandate of the Canadian Wheat Board … submit through plebiscite to all those eligible to vote in CWB elections a clear and direct question asking whether those eligible to vote support or oppose the single desk selling provisions.”
Conservative MPs opposed to the single desk object to the current eligible voters rule because it gives an equal vote to small or absentee owners with a permit book and grain producers with a full-time stake in the business.
Their dissenting opinion said there is no mandate for the board in the legislation and Easter’s motion would force a producer vote on any changes in the way the wheat board does business.
Easter accused the Conservatives of delaying the tabling of the committee motion to block a debate on the farmer-vote issue.
“They don’t want to defend their position that farmers shouldn’t have the right to decide on the mandate of the board but we’ll have that debate in the fall,” Easter said.
