The Canadian Wheat Board is squaring off against the Alberta government over its taxpayer-financed campaign to end the board’s status as the single desk seller of wheat and barley.
At a news conference scheduled in Calgary April 27, senior board officials planned to say the provincial government is acting in an undemocratic manner by trying to override the decisions of the board’s elected farmer-directors.
They accused the province of acting in a “misguided and irresponsible” manner by considering legislation to set up an open market in the province.
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And they criticized the province for engaging in a misinformation campaign about the costs and benefits of single desk selling versus the open market.
Farmers run the wheat board, said chair Ken Ritter, and farmers stand to lose if the agency’s marketing powers are weakened in any way.
“We’re begrudgingly taking up this fight, not because we want to get into an ideological debate with the government of Alberta, but rather because our fundamental rights as farmers are at stake,” he said in remarks prepared for delivery at the news conference.
The province has been running advertisements in recent weeks advocating what it calls marketing choice by ending the board’s single desk powers and allowing farmers to sell wheat and barley outside the board. It has also set up a newsletter and a website to promote the plan. The province is spending $400,000 on its Choice Matters campaign.
In addition, a private member’s bill before the legislature would set up a test open market in the province, although there are constitutional questions about whether Alberta has the legal right to change grain marketing rules on its own.
Ritter said the board will conduct its own “modest” ad campaign in the coming months, hold public meetings in Alberta and using existing CWB publications to distribute its message about the financial benefits of the single desk.
Farmers, not government, should decide what kind of marketing system they want, he said. They can do that through the election of CWB directors, and Alberta wants to undermine that democratic process.
“As farmers, we are at a loss to understand why the government of Alberta has chosen, at this time, to launch a campaign that would strip us of our right to choose and do it, oddly enough, in the name of ‘choice,’ ” said the board chair.
