Strahl is the federal agriculture minister and minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board.
The opinion piece in your April 26 edition (Harper government wages war on CWB, by Albert Horner and David Orchard) was inaccurate and misleading.
It unfairly painted a negative picture of the Conservative government’s actions to live up to its commitment to provide western Canadian grain farmers with the freedom to choose how they market their barley.
The clear majority of farmers want change and we are moving forward to making it a reality by Aug. 1. The necessary amendments to the Canadian Wheat Board regulations were published in the Canada Gazette on April 21 and people have 30 days to comment before they are considered for final approval by the Governor-in-Council.
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?
The changes we proposed would remove barley and barley products from the CWB’s monopoly and permit farmers to sell those products directly to any domestic or foreign buyer, including the CWB.
To label the recent barley plebiscite as fraudulent and to focus on the 13.8 percent that wanted the CWB to have no role in the marketing of barley is a misrepresentation of the overall picture and a gross disservice to your farmer-readers.
The results clearly show that just over one-third of barley producers want the monopoly on barley to remain. The rest, 62.2 percent, want a change – the large majority of which want a choice in how they market their grain, including through the CWB, which is what this government has been proposing since our first day in office.
Doomsday predictions about the wheat board falling into the hands of U.S. grain companies overnight, the Port of Churchill not surviving and the entire east-west rail system including grain terminals in Prince Rupert and Quebec City being at risk are reckless examples of fear mongering that help no one.
If Churchill makes sound business sense under a CWB monopoly, there’s no reason to believe it won’t continue to make sense under marketing choice as grain will still need to be moved.
The comparison of marketing choice with supply management has been brought up time and time again by the pro-monopoly forces, and it is sad to have to restate the facts one more time to dispel such potentially damaging propaganda.
The CWB was created by an act of Parliament which forced western Canadian farmers to sell their wheat and barley through it. By contrast, supply management is a national system of elected provincial marketing boards.
Supply management has evolved and become stronger in the interests of producers, an overwhelming majority of whom are extremely satisfied with the way the system works.
This is not the case with the CWB’s single desk monopoly. Producers have been telling us for years, and most recently in the barley plebiscite, that they want to be able make their own business decisions, which includes alternatives to the CWB.
As marketing choice for barley becomes a reality, foreign buyers should have no concerns about supply. Canadian farmers are as ready and able as they always are to deliver an ongoing supply of good-quality barley, on time and on specification.
Canada is open for business and that is the positive message that our customers overseas need to hear loud and clear. The CWB’s relationships with its foreign customers are one of the strengths it can use in a marketing choice environment.
Canada’s new government is listening to farmers and getting things done for the entire agriculture sector.
