SASKATOON – Rules governing cross-border grain shipments have come under fire again.
But this time, the protest had nothing to do with shipping across the Canada-U.S. border.
A group of millers, bakers and farmers gathered at the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border last week to vent their frustration and anger at regulations governing the interprovincial movement of products like wheat flour and pancake mix.
And they invited the media along to watch as they broke the law by shipping some of those products across the border without an interprovincial licence from the Canadian Wheat Board.
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Paul Orsak, a farmer from Binscarth, Man., and one of the organizers of the event, said the CWB Act prevents farmers and entrepreneurs from engaging in the diversification and value-added activity that governments are promoting.
“We are intentionally and deliberately breaking the law, so we can demonstrate to consumers and taxpayers how foolish and counterproductive the laws are which control this area of our economy and our lives,” he said.
Sell within province only
Under the wheat board act, a farmer is free to mill his own wheat on his own farm and sell it within his own province.
In any other case – selling out of province, milling off the farm or buying wheat from other farmers – the wheat must be sold to the wheat board and then bought back at the same price the board charges all domestic commercial mills. An interprovincial licence must also be obtained.
At last week’s protest, some 60 or 70 farmers gathered to listen to a few speeches at the Elk’s Hall in Moosomin, Sask., then formed a convoy of vehicles and headed down the Trans-Canada Highway to the Manitoba border.
There, they transferred bags of products – “contraband pancake mix”, as Orsak laughingly referred to it – to a waiting truck for shipment to a retail store in Brandon.
All the farmers carried a few bags across the border, Orsak said, so if the board wants to take any action, it will have to charge 60 or 70 farmers as well as the miller.
The board’s legal department discussed the planned protest with the RCMP, but CWB chief commissioner Lorne Hehn said later no action is being contemplated against the farmers or millers who took part.
The board says the buy-back provisions are part and parcel of the whole idea of single-desk selling and price pooling.
“As a single-desk seller we’re able to extract the maximum price that mills have to pay to growers,” said information officer Brian Stacey. “We’re extracting that benefit and distributing it back to all farmers in the pool account.”
Orsak said that may be the board’s mandate under the act, “but it happens to be a mandate that less and less people agree with.” And he called it an obstacle to economic growth.
“There’s a disincentive for folks to invest and add extra effort and dollars to create value-added and create some jobs and retain some of the economic benefits that go along with processing,” he said.
Miller miffed
The miller who provided the products for last week’s demonstration was Ross Nunweiler of Nunweiler’s Flour Co. in Alsask, Sask., which ships 45,000 kilograms of processed grain products a month.
Nunweiler declined to be interviewed for this story, saying The Western Producer provides biased coverage of wheat board issues.
“We know what way it’s going to be slanted, and I don’t think it’s in favor of us, so I really don’t see any advantage in us speaking to you,” he said.
Nunweiler told other media outlets the wheat board regulations cost him thousands of dollars a year and discourages value-added processing on the Prairies.
In the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, he said he sells his wheat to the board for $4.34 a bushel (initial plus estimated final payment) then buys it back for $6.06. That reduces his net price to $2.62.
“We want to sell our Saskatchewan value-added product into as many markets as we can but the act has us tied up in knots,” Nunweiler was quoted as saying.
Hehn said the board does not want to discourage value-added processing, and doesn’t believe that its current policies do so.
Interprovincial licences are freely granted as long as the other rules are followed, he said. As for the buy-back requirement, it’s a matter of fairness.
“If a small mill is milling a neighbor’s grain or buying grain, then we’re getting into a competitive position with all of the other mills,” he said. “It’s important that the competitive environment be fair and equitable.”
The Canadian National Millers Association, representing 14 large milling companies, supports the existing rules.
