From November www.betterfarming.com
Ontario example gives comfort to Canadian Wheat Board's`opponents
The once-unassailable wheat board is on the defensive, say its critics, thanks to this summer's decision to end the preferential position of the Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board.
by BARRY WILSON
Ralph Goodale, the minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and a Saskatchewan MP, likes to say that the fate of the Winnipeg-based monopoly marketer will be decided by Prairie farmers, now that they have the right to elect two-thirds of the 15-member board.
But even as a new set of CWB elections looms this autumn as a test of Prairie farm opinion, it seems that Ontario farmers and their MPs are figuring prominently for the first time in the debate over the 67-year-old western icon. They will not ultimately decide the fate of the board's single desk system for exports of wheat and barley and domestic sales of those grains for human consumption, but it is clear they will have an influence.
It begins with this summer's decision by Ontario wheat producers to end the preferential position of the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board in the market. Western opponents of the CWB monopoly have latched onto that decision as a vindication of the view that a dual market is possible and that Prairie farmers, like their Ontario counterparts, should have a marketing choice.
Then comes the decision by the Liberal-dominated House of Commons agriculture committee last summer to recommend that the CWB try an open-market experiment.
The recommendation sent shock waves through the western debate. The Liberals, supported by the NDP, have been staunch defenders of the wheat board monopoly. How could the Liberal majority on the committee have sided with the anti-monopoly Canadian Alliance?
While the recommendation has little chance of immediate acceptance by the government or the CWB, even board defenders concede that the parliamentary recommendation gives the anti-monopoly faction more credibility. And board critics are quick to credit Ontario Liberal MPs for the new-found momentum in their favour. Cam Dahl, the new Ottawa director of the lobby group Grain Growers of Canada and a former Canadian Alliance Parliament Hill aide, says the once-unassailable CWB is on the defensive.
Dahl figures a crucial change has been the creation of the grain growers' lobby that represents grains and oilseeds producers from across the country, including influential Ontario wheat, corn and soybean producers. It has been arguing that Prairie grain farmers should have the same marketing choices that Ontario farmers have.
"I think that when Ontario farmers say they support giving Prairie farmers the same options that work in Ontario, many of the Ontario Liberals think about it a bit more and perhaps get a different perspective on it," he said. And that led to the unexpected parliamentary proposal.
Canadian Wheat Board chair Ken Ritter, a Saskatchewan farmer, says the comparison between the Ontario board and the CWB is ridiculous. Ontario exports half or less of the Ontario crop and sells it primarily to nearby U.S. buyers, while the CWB sells 80 percent of the Prairie crop to more than 70 countries. Still, he concedes that the Ontario example and the parliamentary recommendation have given comfort to the opponents.
The next test of western farmer sentiment will come with elections next month when the anti-monopoly forces are expected to add to their one representative on the board.
Whatever happens, the Ontario experience and its representatives now are part of the Prairie wheat marketing debate. BF
Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.
Ontario example gives comfort to Canadian Wheat Board's`opponents
The once-unassailable wheat board is on the defensive, say its critics, thanks to this summer's decision to end the preferential position of the Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board.
by BARRY WILSON
Ralph Goodale, the minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and a Saskatchewan MP, likes to say that the fate of the Winnipeg-based monopoly marketer will be decided by Prairie farmers, now that they have the right to elect two-thirds of the 15-member board.
But even as a new set of CWB elections looms this autumn as a test of Prairie farm opinion, it seems that Ontario farmers and their MPs are figuring prominently for the first time in the debate over the 67-year-old western icon. They will not ultimately decide the fate of the board's single desk system for exports of wheat and barley and domestic sales of those grains for human consumption, but it is clear they will have an influence.
It begins with this summer's decision by Ontario wheat producers to end the preferential position of the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board in the market. Western opponents of the CWB monopoly have latched onto that decision as a vindication of the view that a dual market is possible and that Prairie farmers, like their Ontario counterparts, should have a marketing choice.
Then comes the decision by the Liberal-dominated House of Commons agriculture committee last summer to recommend that the CWB try an open-market experiment.
The recommendation sent shock waves through the western debate. The Liberals, supported by the NDP, have been staunch defenders of the wheat board monopoly. How could the Liberal majority on the committee have sided with the anti-monopoly Canadian Alliance?
While the recommendation has little chance of immediate acceptance by the government or the CWB, even board defenders concede that the parliamentary recommendation gives the anti-monopoly faction more credibility. And board critics are quick to credit Ontario Liberal MPs for the new-found momentum in their favour. Cam Dahl, the new Ottawa director of the lobby group Grain Growers of Canada and a former Canadian Alliance Parliament Hill aide, says the once-unassailable CWB is on the defensive.
Dahl figures a crucial change has been the creation of the grain growers' lobby that represents grains and oilseeds producers from across the country, including influential Ontario wheat, corn and soybean producers. It has been arguing that Prairie grain farmers should have the same marketing choices that Ontario farmers have.
"I think that when Ontario farmers say they support giving Prairie farmers the same options that work in Ontario, many of the Ontario Liberals think about it a bit more and perhaps get a different perspective on it," he said. And that led to the unexpected parliamentary proposal.
Canadian Wheat Board chair Ken Ritter, a Saskatchewan farmer, says the comparison between the Ontario board and the CWB is ridiculous. Ontario exports half or less of the Ontario crop and sells it primarily to nearby U.S. buyers, while the CWB sells 80 percent of the Prairie crop to more than 70 countries. Still, he concedes that the Ontario example and the parliamentary recommendation have given comfort to the opponents.
The next test of western farmer sentiment will come with elections next month when the anti-monopoly forces are expected to add to their one representative on the board.
Whatever happens, the Ontario experience and its representatives now are part of the Prairie wheat marketing debate. BF
Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.
Comment