There was a time, not so many years ago, when Canadian Federation of Agriculture meetings seemed dominated by western voices and western issues.
Grain subsidies, drought relief, rail policy, the need for strong export policies -these were the topics of the day, year after year. The CFA looked to the leaders of powerful Prairie delegations for leadership on these issues. They almost always got their way.
In fact, before the Crow subsidy issue blew several Prairie farm organizations apart more than a decade ago, powerful western members largely used the CFA as a national stamp of approval for strongly-held regional grain, transportation and subsidy policies.
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Even after the Crow debacle which saw Saskatchewan and Manitoba general farm organizations collapse and United Grain Growers pull out of the organization, the Prairie wheat pools continued to set the tone for CFA policies on western issues.
The CFA’s board meeting at the end of July showed how much things have changed.
The balance of power clearly has shifted east.
The Quebec and Ontario delegations oozed confidence.
Both are strong, are taken seriously by their provincial governments, have stable funding and seem prepared to take on anyone to defend their interests.
The supply-management agencies were strong among the voices of CFA members demanding that the organization make support of orderly marketing a major priority. Several Maritime provinces delegations offered articulate interventions during debates.
The western voices were more hesitant, less sure of themselves. And there were fewer of them.
Saskatchewan remains without a general farm voice, other than that of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
Alberta’s general farm organization Wild Rose Agricultural Producers lost its place at the table because it cannot afford to belong.
And of course, the large Prairie cattle industry is not represented in CFA.
Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers had a strong delegation but KAP too is struggling a bit, behind in its dues payments to the CFA.
The B.C. Federation of Agriculture was there, but it was hardly part of a unified western voice.
President Jake Janzen used the meeting to remind everyone he still is bitter that Prairie grain producers seem to be better treated by Ottawa than are B.C. grain users.
Then there were the three Prairie pools, the major western voice in CFA.
They were there as a Prairie Pools Inc. delegation but when debate turned to “their” issue – the future of the Canadian Wheat Board – they clearly were uncomfortable inhabiting the same PPI tent. The Pools do not speak with a single voice on the issue.
The most forceful voices calling for a strong CFA stand in favor of the wheat board came, in fact, from non-Prairie sources who see it as an issue of principle.
If the board is weakened, they say, it could set a precedent for future weakening of supply-management marketing boards. How times have changed.
