Farmers say government wants to dismantle Canadian Wheat Board
31 minutes ago
OTTAWA - Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was meeting privately with some farm and agribusiness groups to discuss the future of the barley industry Tuesday, but other farmers said it was a blatant attempt to wreck the Canadian Wheat Board.
It's a reflection of the divisions which have split Prairie farmer ranks over the last year. Some farmers see the meeting as the start of an ideological slope that could see the government next do away with marketing boards, medicare and the CBC.
Ritz says he wants to move to a system which would let farmers choose between selling barley through the board or on their own. To some, that's heresy.
"Marketing choice or a dual market is there really to end the wheat board," Butch Harder, a Manitoba farmer, told a news conference.
Ending the board's control will turn Prairie agriculture over to businesses, he said.
He said a majority of producers support the board, although a government-sponsored plebiscite last year seemed to support the optional-marketing plan.
Harder and others say the plebiscite was a rigged election worthy of "a banana republic."
The minister sees the problem as a struggle between a board that wants to hang on to a monopoly and farmers who want choice.
"There is obviously a major gap between what producers and the industry want and where the Canadian Wheat Board insists on going," Ritz said in a news release about the meeting. "It's high time the CWB stops fighting with producers and gets in a room with them to start hammering out real options for marketing choice."
Harder said that's a smokescreen.
"Except for two CWB officials, everyone invited to this meeting represents farm and business organizations that are intent on dismantling my marketing agency and have openly said so."
Ken Sigurdson, a Saskatchewan farmer, echoed Harder:
"That meeting has excluded the major farm groups in this country and is only composed of Canadian Wheat Board haters and long-term haters of the wheat board and grain company officials and we say that's unfair."
A government attempt to change the marketing system through regulation foundered last year when a Federal Court judge rejected that approach. The government has taken the issue to appeal and a hearing is scheduled for next month.
The board says the government cannot act through regulation and must bring the changes before Parliament for approval.
Harder said that the government is on an ideological crusade.
"If we don't stop this madness I can tell you, and I firmly believe it, that supply management will be next to go, medicare and the CBC will follow."
31 minutes ago
OTTAWA - Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was meeting privately with some farm and agribusiness groups to discuss the future of the barley industry Tuesday, but other farmers said it was a blatant attempt to wreck the Canadian Wheat Board.
It's a reflection of the divisions which have split Prairie farmer ranks over the last year. Some farmers see the meeting as the start of an ideological slope that could see the government next do away with marketing boards, medicare and the CBC.
Ritz says he wants to move to a system which would let farmers choose between selling barley through the board or on their own. To some, that's heresy.
"Marketing choice or a dual market is there really to end the wheat board," Butch Harder, a Manitoba farmer, told a news conference.
Ending the board's control will turn Prairie agriculture over to businesses, he said.
He said a majority of producers support the board, although a government-sponsored plebiscite last year seemed to support the optional-marketing plan.
Harder and others say the plebiscite was a rigged election worthy of "a banana republic."
The minister sees the problem as a struggle between a board that wants to hang on to a monopoly and farmers who want choice.
"There is obviously a major gap between what producers and the industry want and where the Canadian Wheat Board insists on going," Ritz said in a news release about the meeting. "It's high time the CWB stops fighting with producers and gets in a room with them to start hammering out real options for marketing choice."
Harder said that's a smokescreen.
"Except for two CWB officials, everyone invited to this meeting represents farm and business organizations that are intent on dismantling my marketing agency and have openly said so."
Ken Sigurdson, a Saskatchewan farmer, echoed Harder:
"That meeting has excluded the major farm groups in this country and is only composed of Canadian Wheat Board haters and long-term haters of the wheat board and grain company officials and we say that's unfair."
A government attempt to change the marketing system through regulation foundered last year when a Federal Court judge rejected that approach. The government has taken the issue to appeal and a hearing is scheduled for next month.
The board says the government cannot act through regulation and must bring the changes before Parliament for approval.
Harder said that the government is on an ideological crusade.
"If we don't stop this madness I can tell you, and I firmly believe it, that supply management will be next to go, medicare and the CBC will follow."
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