A vote on the future of wheat marketing in Ontario is a dangerous precedent and the rules should be changed, says the National Farmers Union.
Under the rules for this fall’s vote on the fate of the Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board, two-thirds of those voting must support the board in order for it to retain its status as single-desk seller.
That means if 35 percent of the province’s wheat growers vote to end the board’s monopoly, it will be gone.
That’s undemocratic, says NFU Ontario co-ordinator Peter Dowling.
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The farmers union fears the Ontario vote could be used as a precedent by groups seeking to end the single-desk status of other marketing agencies, including the Canadian Wheat Board.
“Given that the two-thirds requirement dramatically increases the danger of the destruction of the (Ontario board), it is of vital concern both to Ontario wheat producers and to orderly marketing supporters across Canada,” Dowling said in an Aug. 13 letter to the chair of the Ontario board.
Paul Gordon, of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, which is organizing the vote, said the two-thirds rule is consistent with previous votes that have been held in order to set up new marketing agencies.
Need more than half
He said the commission believes if a marketing system is to be put in place requiring all producers to participate, it must be supported by more than a bare majority.
“It’s very important that a strong majority supports the system,” he said. “Even if you had 55 percent voting yes, to try to impose that on 45 percent of the producers creates a tremendous enforcement problem for the board and could in the end lead to the demise of the board anyway.”
Canadian Farmers For Justice, which opposes the Canadian Wheat Board’s export monopoly, has already made public statements contrasting the Ontario vote with last February’s vote on the CWB’s status as the single-desk seller of barley.
The barley vote required a simple majority. The board side won with the support of 63 percent of those voting. Under the Ontario rules, the board would have lost and its monopoly would have ended.
Farmers for Justice spokesperson Jim Pallister said in a press release that while “consensus and compromise” are being used in the Ontario wheat board debate, farmers in the West are at the mercy of the federal government and must resort to the courts and protest rallies.
Art Macklin, chair of the wheat board’s producer advisory committee, said he thinks the two-thirds rule puts supporters of orderly marketing at a real disadvantage.
“If the majority support orderly marketing through the Ontario wheat board, that should carry the day,” he said, noting that governments are often elected with less than 50 percent of the vote.
Requiring two-thirds support to keep a marketing system in place means a vote could be held on keeping canola on the open market and if 34 percent voted no, it would be put under a single-desk seller.
“I don’t think Farmers For Justice would like that much,” he said.
Ballots and an information package will be sent in October to about 20,000 Ontario farmers who have grown wheat in any of the last three years. The votes will be counted in late November and the results known before Christmas.
Gordon said he expects a “vigorous” campaign, especially in southwestern Ontario, where producers are deeply divided on the issue of single-desk selling.
