CAMROSE, Alta. – Comments from the federal agriculture minister that he is going to reject recommendations to break the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on wheat and barley sales have spurred his opponents to fight harder.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers and the Alberta government last week began radio advertising campaigns calling on Ralph Goodale to follow the Western Grain Marketing Panel’s recommendations to drop feed barley from the board’s control and allow farmers to sell 25 percent of licensed wheat on the open market. The panel also recommended unlicensed wheat and organically grown grain sales be shifted to the open market.
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The ads from the Alberta government and the wheat growers deny they want to destroy the wheat board.
The wheat growers ads are running across the prairie provinces, while the Alberta government’s are running only in that province.
Alberta agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski, who is spending $67,000 on the ads, said farmers must be aware the federal government is about to make big decisions on grain marketing, and it’s important to clarify Alberta’s position.
“There has been a lot of effort made to suggest our motives are different from what our intentions (actually) are,” he said. “We support the wheat board as an option.”
Paszkowski said taxpayers are getting their money’s worth from the ads because farmers should be aware that now is the time for suggestions.
Larry Maguire, president of the wheat growers, said his organization’s campaign is also aimed at stirring up producers before Goodale can take his wheat board plans to Parliament.
“We are trying to influence his decision,” said Maguire. “We believe there is still time to do that.”
But Vern Greenshields, a spokesperson in Goodale’s office, said radio ads aren’t likely to sway the minister.
“I wouldn’t expect they would have any impact on his decision,” said Greenshields. “The fact that a farm organization or a province starts some kind of a publicity campaign is not going to have a major impact on him.”
Maguire said the decision to go with a radio campaign was based on the location of producers in September.
“They’re all in tractors and combines,” he said. “This is the only way to really catch them.”
The wheat growers’ campaign is expected to cost more than $30,000. The Alberta government is following up its radio ads with a mail-out campaign. While the ads focus on abstract issues of grain marketing, Paszkowski is also beginning to take direct personal shots at Goodale in interviews and in letters to farm newspapers.
“Is the institution there to serve the producer, or are the producers there to serve the institution? I’m beginning to feel that the federal minister is really looking after the latter,” he said.
“He’s obviously going against the wishes of the producers.”
