MP Brian Storseth’s March 31 letter begs a response on at least three fronts. First, a single desk is by definition an all-or-nothing entity. Everybody’s in, or the benefit bleeds away. Bill C-619 would do away with the single desk for prairie wheat and barley. Plain and simple, that’s not a decision that belongs to the federal government. Decisions concerning their marketing structure for western Canadian wheat and barley should be made democratically by wheat and barley producers.
Second, transportation is an integral part of the entire grain-marketing enterprise. The (Canadian Wheat Board) is purchasing two lakers to reduce prairie wheat and barley producers’ annual Great Lakes transportation costs (about $75 million) by at least $10 million. The lakers will cost $65 million, or $1 per tonne over four years. The millions of dollars they save each year will benefit not only the current generation of farmers, but the sons and daughters who take their places.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Any risk to farmers’ money is less than negligible. As is the case in any commercially sensitive negotiation, details could not be shared throughout; they were made public as soon as possible. MP Storseth should be well aware of the responsibility of elected representatives to make sound decisions on behalf of those they represent.
And thirdly, likewise, Mr. Storseth should know that the 2008 Informa study he has chosen to quote has been widely discredited because of its false assumptions and selective use of data….
The details of these inaccuracies are too lengthy for this letter. I invite readers to view our Aug. 8, 2008, news release on the CWB web site.
Allen Oberg,Chair, CWB Board of Directors,
Forestburg, Alta.
