The Canadian Wheat Board is a product of the CWB Act. The CWB is and always has been a government legislated entity and the function of the board of directors is to operate the CWB in accordance with the government legislation.
Any director of the CWB that feels they cannot fulfill their obligations to follow the CWB Act given the changes that are proposed should resign.
The CWB creates a monopoly position by denying export licenses to prairie producers. If you want to end the ability of the CWB to create a monopoly, just take out the national licensing section of the CWB Act.
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With no license requirement, the CWB will still function as it is now; they just lose the ability to force producers to deliver to the board.
Anyone could still voluntarily deliver. With no license requirements, anyone would be able to export wheat or barley and their products.
The ability to freely market wheat and barley will mean instant arbitrage between the Prairies and the rest of the world, just like the rest of Canada enjoys.
There will be no lineups at the U.S. border as some naysayers claim. They must still be thinking in CWB price terms, where the prairie price is substantially lower than the U.S. and given the opportunity producers would flock to the higher price U.S. market.
With a free market, the price would be the same. There would only be product moving either way if there was a shortage.
With a free market, there might even be a flour mill or even a pasta plant built in the West. There will be value adding and wealth creation in the Prairies with a free market.
The CWB monopoly issue is fundamentally a rights issue, not a money issue. There is no legislation to pay more or less for wheat and barley. It is legislation used to deny my rights as a Canadian to ownership and control of the product I grew and financed the production of.
Control of my own production is a basic fundamental right as a Canadian that has been selectively denied because I grew the grain on the Prairies. Freedom and equality can never come too fast or too soon. How unfortunate the CWB directors feel it is their right to continue to deny me my rights.
Thankfully the government has seen fit to restore my rights.
Douglas McBain,Cremona, Alta.
