CWB Pool on Marketing Freedom Day!!

[AdamSmith]

Do you really want to just ask them to repeal the CWB Act?

Yes.

The CWB Act is nothing more than the legislated restriction on the free commercial flow of wheat and barley.

Everything is restricted except that which is permitted by the board.

The purpose of the act is to forcibly funnel all wheat and barley into the hands of the cwb, with the exception of feed grade wheat and barley being permitted to flow freely between provincial boundaries but still can’t be exported.

I say this is NOT the foundation in which you permanently secure a free and open market for wheat and barley.

There is no federal legislation specific to canola, or flax, etc. We have the Canada Grain Act regulating those.

My point is once the feds choose to lift the restriction on wheat and barley there simply is no purpose for the cwb act to exist.

The cwb, as a marketer of wheat can still exist within the open market but 99 out of 100 pages of the cwb act become redundant.

Hence, the repeal of the whole act.

New legislation may or may not be needed to form a new voluntary cwb. But the old act must be tossed onto the ash heap of failed ideas.

[BreadWinner]

Lets shoot for the moon and hopefully we can get off the ground. August 1st is the best time to give us a choice it separates the pooling years and it is a date we are used to using. It has to be done as soon as possible so it doesn't become an election issue in the upcoming provincial elections. If we wait years it will become and issue in the next federal election. Sooner the better, markets don't like uncertaintyand either do customers of the CWB. The annoucment that changes are coming has allready set the wheels in motion.

[AdamSmith]

In my mind the date is a secondary issue.

The main issue is making it bulletproof and making it permanent.

Tinkering with the cwb, while leaving the Act mostly intact, is no permanent solution.

It leaves the feds and the market open to being permanently held hostage to a hostile board of directors, constant uncertainty and lawsuits up the yingyang.

Votes, No buy back licenses, opt outs, opt ins, limits, qualifiers, the we’ll sees, the get back to you laters are things to be avoided like the plague.

First reading of a bill to repeal the cwb act can be done before summer, having it come into force will take longer but will be well worth it in the end.

I told Ottawa yesterday, I’ll wait if I have to because above all it needs to be done right.

[Raven]

Adam, I love what you're saying, and good luck in getting the Conservatives to repeal the CWB Act.

Braveheart. Export licences are granted based upon arbitrary policy. The Conservative government, even when they were only a minirity could have ordered the CWB to grant them to all producers. They are the key to the monopoly over farmers, but without farmer pressure, it doesn't happen.

[newguy]

I do not want a export licence from the CWB. I want the CWB to have nothing to do with my grain in any way. Found out after the last barley vote that nothing can be sugar coated no more.

[parsley]

The CPC has indicated, consistently, for years, that the CWB will be there for those who wan to use it.

When did they change their policy?

[AdamSmith]

So your saying a voluntary wheat pooling marketing organization with no regulatory powers calling themselves the cwb CAN NOT EXIST without a federal act written and enacted during the height of WWII ??

[parsley]

They can. But not immediately.

Unless, of course, you've personally bid on and purchased the ships, filled the signed contracts which have to legally be fulfilled, some several years from now; are underwriting the contracts the accredited agents have entered into, and are willing to sort out the cash advances that you want paid back.

None of the above apply to me personally, so I am able to look upon them as a third party observer.

In the meantime, market access is possible. Tommorow. Or is that a concept so unfamilair, it is unimaginable?

[AdamSmith]

Try looking at it this way, the CWB is an asset of the Federal Government, just like the Canada Post building in my town.

I'd still get my mail even if that building were to close it's doors.I may have to go to a different location to get it but it sure wouldn't mean I'd never get my mail ever again.

Any obligation and function currently done by the cwb can be done by a host of any other governmental depts, especially were that to happen only for transistional purposes.

The problem with saying "just give me a licence" is the HIGH HIGH risk of the gov't doing just that,then wiping their hands and saying "Our job is done here, next."

And besides what makes you think the cwb will be anymore accomodating with granting licences than they have been, say fullfilling access to information requests or respecting the gag order or any number of things?

[AdamSmith]

Was just watching Minister Flaherty being interviwed on Power and Politics
and Evan Soloman was aking about the high gas prices and it they are prepared to intervene.

Paraphrasing here, he said something like gas prices are a function of the marketplace and governments have no more business regulating energy markets than they do wheat markets.

Hmmm.

did the finance minister let the cat out of the bag here or just an innocent use of a phrase?

[parsley]

The problem with saying "Just repeal the Act" is that you don't hold any trump cards, do you? other than loudness and perhaps a novel curse word or two.

As you say. The Governmetn owns the assets. They don't own the grain. Let's just say the world price of wheat goes to $20.00. The Board has contracted for $8 for two years. I'm sure they'll repeal the Act so the Gov't can make up the diff. Esp. if the Canadian $ happened to rise.

Playing high stakes poker is fine if you have enuff in the bank to ride it through. I'm not so sure most farmers do...if what hear about op loans is true.

Does your present reach exceed your credibility grasp?

[parsley]

Ask yourself these questions: How many owe the CWB an advance payment? What is the collateral? Do you have the cash to go and pay it off?

[AdamSmith]

Parsley, what are talking about?

None of us owns a trump card.

The feds will do what the feds want to do.

But by your logic so long as the cwb keep issuing cash advances and keep making contracts they can live on in perpetuity.

What happens if prairie farmers ask for licences to export 99.999% of the wheat grown?

Who'll fill the cwb contracts??

oops, can't have that so we'll have to limit a farmer to just 100t. Na, first come first serve would be better. Some are happy the others, oh well!

The cash advance issue is a non starter. That money is owed to the feds anyway. The grain co's would just send it to a different federal account.

As I said the feds will do what the feds want to do. If the feds choose they no longer want to be in the grain business, I suspect they will get out of the grain business.

handing out licences is keeping them in the grain business.

[parsley]

Handing out export licenses:
1. Requires no legislative change
2. Is instant
3. Still collects advances
4. Honors present contracts
5. Opens the flow of grain and commerce that is irreversible. Once started, there will be no turning back.

Asking for legislative change today, means tying the process up in parliamentary commitees etc. for quite some time.

Besides, I don't know who has done the prep work to deal with the the aftermath of 'instant dissolution' that ends dragging out 4 years. Maybe you have. You are capable. But I'm going to guess hasn't been yr winter project. Better hope it's not the Board saying, "We'll look after it"

[Braveheart]

Pars, instant no cost export licenses is a bogus idea. First, it's "export". For the average farmer this isn't easy. Grain doesn't move into American elevators without an end user certificate. Usually too much inconvenience for small volumes of grain for elevator managers to deal with. Cash advances are not owed to the wheat board per se, they only administer them for the Federal gov't. Is there a problem collecting canola advances? Not that i've ever heard. Export licenses do nothing for a domestic industry (pasta, flour, malt, etc.) that we have all wanted to see flourish but have until now been stifled by the CWB. Licenses still leave that nawing feeling that someone can tell you what and when you can do something with your own property. It still has that Soviet feel to it.

No cost licenses would have been ok as an interim measure when the Conservatives only had a minority. Now, we can get the whole enchilada. An open market. Then you'll see irreversible commerce.

By the way, opt out provisions are bogus too. We just need a free and open market.