All my rants, over the shoddy treatment farmers have received in the last few months from this new Government, would NOT be complete if I did not report the latest response from farmers. They held elections last week. In spite of the interference from Minister Strahl and his strategists and supporters, 4 out of 5 positions on the Canadian Wheat Board , were filled by pro-wheat board representatives.
In the one position that failed to do so, 50% of the voters were dis-qualified from the vote by Government manipulations.
As reported:
Election proves farmers support wheat board, critics tell Tories
Terry Pedwell
Canadian Press
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
OTTAWA (CP) - Supporters of the Canadian Wheat Board are warning the federal Conservative government to back away from sweeping changes to the board in the wake of a vote by farmers.
The Tories want to end the board's monopoly on wheat and barley sales - a move that critics say would effectively kill the farmer-run organization. Pro-monopoly directors won four of five elections over the weekend to a new board of directors, maintaining the balance of power that existed prior to the vote.
Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said the result sends a message that most farmers support keeping the board's marketing monopoly. "Clearly, the majority of farmers are not buying that nonsense about dual-marketing," Wartman said Monday.
"You either have single-desk selling or you have don't have a CWB and they have presented no evidence that would counter that contention."
New Democrat MP Alex Atamanenko said the vote should be a "wake-up call" for Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl. "Farmers made a clear choice this past weekend and chose the wheat board."
The Tories maintain that they want to give producers choice in how they sell their grain. But that's not what farmers have indicated they want, said wheat board chairman Ken Ritter.
Strahl suggested critics are reading too much into the board elections and it's wrong to conclude that the vote means farmers want Ottawa to back off with changes. "Other people would counter that in the federal election, 85 per cent of the MPs elected in wheat board country were Conservative," he said. "And Conservatives campaigned openly and aggressively on moving to marketing choice.
"People make decisions for all kinds of reasons, but the input that's going to be most valuable as far as changes to the board goes is going to be the plebiscite."
Strahl plans to hold a vote among barley farmers by February on "marketing choice," but he has not committed to a plebiscite by wheat farmers.
And Strahl insisted that the wheat board would survive without a monopoly.
"Everytime someone says that the wheat board's in jeopardy or the wheat board might not exist ... whenever they cast doubt on the wheat board, there's no doubt it hurts the board internationally. They should stop doing that."
But Wartman said the only way to maintain a strong wheat board is for Strahl to stop tampering with it.
Meantime, Strahl has threatened to fire wheat board president and CEO Adrian Measner for opposing the government's position.
The wheat board, which is governed by a 15-person board of directors, was established by Parliament in 1935 as a producer marketing system for wheat and barley.
Ten of the directors are elected by grain farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The remaining five are appointed by the federal government.
Some farmers have argued that selling grain through a single government agency no longer works in an era of globalization. But defenders say that without the board, grain prices would fluctuate day-to-day and farmers themselves would have to negotiate their own prices.
Still others support a dual market system, where farmers could sell their crops either on the open market or through the board.
© The Canadian Press 2006
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