Wheat board still not listening
The Canadian Wheat Board has a long history of not listening to farmers. After the federal Conservatives won a majority in May, one might have thought the board would rethink its our-way-or-the-highway approach. Sadly, that hasn't been the case.
Instead, the CWB seems as defiant as ever, even though they have no power to stop the change that is so obviously coming. That change, of course, is the transformation of the board from a compulsory organization -- where it is illegal for western farmers to sell their milling wheat and barley to anyone else -- into a voluntary one.
Recently, the CWB quietly released its annual producer survey. Once again, the results show support for the "single desk" is falling, particularly among younger farmers. When asked the two-part question on wheat, "Which do you prefer, the single desk or an open market?" 52 per cent of decided farmers under the age of 45 chose the open market.
More revealing was the survey's three-part question on support for the single desk, dual marketing or an open market. When it comes to wheat, 58 per cent of respondents want something other than the single desk. That's up significantly from 2010 and consistent with the trend over time. Only 24 per cent of younger farmers (under 45) supported the existing monopoly structure. Put another way, a whopping 76 per cent of the younger generation of farmers surveyed want something other than the status quo, a monopoly.
Instead of listening to a decade's worth of survey results, or the three out of four western provinces that are in favour of marketing choice -- or the federal government, which rightly points out it doesn't need to hold a plebiscite in order to repeal or change the Wheat Board Act -- the board has other ideas. It has instead decided to waste a lot of farmers' hard-earned money on another illegitimate and irrelevant survey that doesn't even list the most popular option, a voluntary board, as a choice.
As usual, the board is purposefully and completely missing the point. Those of us who want to choose for ourselves with whom we market our grain don't want a vote. A vote is just another way of taking the decision out of our hands. It doesn't give us a real choice. It does the opposite -- it takes that choice away.
Furthermore, the notion that someone else can vote away the end result of our hard work, namely our grain, is quite frankly offensive. That is not the way democracy should work in a free country like Canada. There is no such thing as the right to vote away someone else's life, liberty or, in this case, property. Again, the CWB just isn't listening.
One of the arguments made is that the board has few fixed assets, and couldn't survive if it had to rely on its "competitors" to handle its grain. Many of us have correctly argued that this is just not the case.
One of those private companies, Cargill, operated for 50 years in Canada without any physical facilities. Many other companies, Toepfer, for example, are doing exactly that right now. Not only is the wheat board not listening; in this case, they haven't even bothered to ask the question.
The Western Grain Elevators Association said as much in a recent press release. Their members are keenly interested in continuing to handle board grains. But they are disappointed that, as of yet, the board has not approached any of them.
The federal government has requested a business plan from the CWB, one that describes how it would operate in a post-monopoly world. The board is refusing to provide one and insists it's up to the feds to come up with a plan. Well, it's not.
Governments are empowered to set up a basic environment for conducting all kinds of businesses, but they should never micromanage everything that happens within that environment. Should the CWB continue with this childishness, it will have no one to blame but itself for the inevitable outcome.
If the board wants to survive in a competitive marketplace, its attitude has to change. It's going to have to work with people on a voluntary basis. Its past practice of telling everyone how to behave is no longer on the table. If they are to become a valuable tool for farmers, they're going to have to stop with the telling, and start listening.
Rolf Penner is a Manitoba farmer and vice-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
The Canadian Wheat Board has a long history of not listening to farmers. After the federal Conservatives won a majority in May, one might have thought the board would rethink its our-way-or-the-highway approach. Sadly, that hasn't been the case.
Instead, the CWB seems as defiant as ever, even though they have no power to stop the change that is so obviously coming. That change, of course, is the transformation of the board from a compulsory organization -- where it is illegal for western farmers to sell their milling wheat and barley to anyone else -- into a voluntary one.
Recently, the CWB quietly released its annual producer survey. Once again, the results show support for the "single desk" is falling, particularly among younger farmers. When asked the two-part question on wheat, "Which do you prefer, the single desk or an open market?" 52 per cent of decided farmers under the age of 45 chose the open market.
More revealing was the survey's three-part question on support for the single desk, dual marketing or an open market. When it comes to wheat, 58 per cent of respondents want something other than the single desk. That's up significantly from 2010 and consistent with the trend over time. Only 24 per cent of younger farmers (under 45) supported the existing monopoly structure. Put another way, a whopping 76 per cent of the younger generation of farmers surveyed want something other than the status quo, a monopoly.
Instead of listening to a decade's worth of survey results, or the three out of four western provinces that are in favour of marketing choice -- or the federal government, which rightly points out it doesn't need to hold a plebiscite in order to repeal or change the Wheat Board Act -- the board has other ideas. It has instead decided to waste a lot of farmers' hard-earned money on another illegitimate and irrelevant survey that doesn't even list the most popular option, a voluntary board, as a choice.
As usual, the board is purposefully and completely missing the point. Those of us who want to choose for ourselves with whom we market our grain don't want a vote. A vote is just another way of taking the decision out of our hands. It doesn't give us a real choice. It does the opposite -- it takes that choice away.
Furthermore, the notion that someone else can vote away the end result of our hard work, namely our grain, is quite frankly offensive. That is not the way democracy should work in a free country like Canada. There is no such thing as the right to vote away someone else's life, liberty or, in this case, property. Again, the CWB just isn't listening.
One of the arguments made is that the board has few fixed assets, and couldn't survive if it had to rely on its "competitors" to handle its grain. Many of us have correctly argued that this is just not the case.
One of those private companies, Cargill, operated for 50 years in Canada without any physical facilities. Many other companies, Toepfer, for example, are doing exactly that right now. Not only is the wheat board not listening; in this case, they haven't even bothered to ask the question.
The Western Grain Elevators Association said as much in a recent press release. Their members are keenly interested in continuing to handle board grains. But they are disappointed that, as of yet, the board has not approached any of them.
The federal government has requested a business plan from the CWB, one that describes how it would operate in a post-monopoly world. The board is refusing to provide one and insists it's up to the feds to come up with a plan. Well, it's not.
Governments are empowered to set up a basic environment for conducting all kinds of businesses, but they should never micromanage everything that happens within that environment. Should the CWB continue with this childishness, it will have no one to blame but itself for the inevitable outcome.
If the board wants to survive in a competitive marketplace, its attitude has to change. It's going to have to work with people on a voluntary basis. Its past practice of telling everyone how to behave is no longer on the table. If they are to become a valuable tool for farmers, they're going to have to stop with the telling, and start listening.
Rolf Penner is a Manitoba farmer and vice-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.