THE CANADIAN Wheat Board doesn’t want to be included in federal accountability legislation, but its arguments are not convincing.
Bill C-2, the Conservative government’s legislation, is intended to clean up government, limit the influence of lobbyists, protect whistle blowers and open government to more public scrutiny through access to information law.
The legislation, which passed the House of Commons and now goes to the Senate, extends beyond government to include crown corporations and some quasi government institutions, including the Canadian Wheat Board.
The board objects, arguing that compliance will be expensive and benefit only competitors and critics who will use the information to undermine and attack it.
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There are reasons the board should be treated differently from the federal bureaucracy.
Unlike a tax-funded government department, which clearly must answer to taxpayers, the board is largely self financing, paying its costs from the proceeds of grain it sells on behalf of farmers. Taxpayers play a role only on the rare occasion when the government guarantee of the initial payment requires a top up of the pool accounts.
Also unlike a government department, the board is a commercial entity with information it must keep confidential from competitors if it is to succeed.
The legislation already exempts disclosure of commercially sensitive grain pricing information. But other internal operating information not directly connected to commercial transaction could hurt the board’s competitiveness if it were made public. It would be wrong to make the board a wide-open book when grain companies can protect commercially sensitive information.
The board also worries that critics will use access to information requests to harass it.
This may be true, but the inconvenience and cost should be weighed against the potential benefits from improved accountability, such as increased attention to fiscal efficiency and reduced potential for wasteful spending.
Farmers under the CWB monopoly are more than shareholders who chose to invest in a public company. Western farmers are required to market their wheat and export barley through the board and in most years fund its entire operations. That entitles them to greater access to board information.
Extending access-to-information law to commercial entities like the board might require amendments to ensure that commercially sensitive information is protected and to prevent nuisance and vexatious information requests.
But once accommodated, a new level of openness will be welcome.
It may give some people more information for use in criticisms, but the board should be confident enough in its actions to explain and defend them so that reasonable farmers can decide whether the criticism has merit.
