News Flash --- Liberal Opinion is The Law of Land (in the opinion of Liberals)

[AdamSmith]

ST. Boniface Liberal MP Raymond Simard will introduce a private member's bill in the House of Commons today requiring that the government consult fully with farmers before attempting to legislate an end to the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on barley marketing.

A spokesman for Simard said Wednesday the bill would require the government to hold a new vote among Prairie grain growers on a clear question before it legislated an end to the wheat board's sales monopoly.

"The legislation has been structured to ensure that the Harper government must conduct itself in its dealings with the CWB with regard to the legitimate authority of the farmer elected board of directors," the spokesman said.

A plebiscite last year asked farmers to choose whether they wanted the single desk, an open market, or a dual marketing system in which the board would continue to market barley in an open market.

The wheat board argued that a dual marketing system was unworkable, and critics said the government structured the plebiscite so it could manipulate the results.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Tuesday he would introduce legislation as early as next month to end the wheat board's barley marketing monopoly.

His announcement came immediately after a meeting with wheat board representatives and groups supporting an open barley market.

Ritz issued an ultimatum to the wheat board at the meeting to come up with a "clear road map" by the end of the week on how to implement "marketing choice" for farmers.

Wheat board directors, the majority of whom support retention of the CWB monopoly, are meeting in Winnipeg today through Friday.

[silverback]

Who wrote that piece Adam?

I like the part where they mention a vote was held, but then don't dare reveal what the result was.


Bias?, what bias?

[AdamSmith]

A spokesman for Simard said Wednesday the bill would require the government to hold a new vote among Prairie grain growers on a clear question before it legislated an end to the wheat board's sales monopoly.

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Ya just gotta love these guys,

they despise, and I do mean despise the very notion of farmers making their own decisions.

I wonder how many calls Simard got from Barley Growers in his St. Bonifice riding?


I think I will call this ill-informed fellow and ask him why he believe the previous plebicite was illegitimate.

I wonder if he knows that the concept of a "dual-market" where the cwb would no longer have a monopoly but would still offer their services to farmers within a competitive environment, has been floated around for over fifteen years now. And for fifteen years the cwb hasn't convinced farmers that it can't be done.

I wonder if he realizes that many actual, honest to god growers understand the concept and actually believe it could work in western Canada. ie the question was clear to most farmers.

I wonder if he realizes that this system functions today in Ontario.

I wonder if realizes that Ontario is within Canada.

I wonder if he realizes that the Malt Barley industry will die in Western Canada should Barley remain under the exlusive jurisdiction of the cwb.

I wonder if he understands that despite what the cwb and his mentor Ralpg Goodale say, the majority of farmers want to give "choice" a go.

I wonder if he even has one little inkling at to why the Liberal Party of Canada does so piss poor in rural Western Canada.

Maybe we need to inform the Liberal and many others by the way about these things and much more.




If you want to contact him, here's his info.


Riding:


Saint Boniface

Web:
www.raymondsimard.parl.gc.ca

Email:
Simard.R@parl.gc.ca

Constituency Office:
4-213 St. Mary's Rd.
Winnipeg, MB R2H 1J2
(204) 983-3183


Ottawa Office:
Chambre des communes
Ottawa, ON
(613) 995-0579

[AdamSmith]

just a Wpg Free Press article with no byline.

Typical WFP garbage

[AdamSmith]

Oh You know I think the most important question to ask him.

How many farmers did you consult, Mr. Simard before deciding to bring this private members bill forward?

[wilagro]

Thank gawd for the Liberals...and their continuing support of the CWB. May they be successful in their efforts to "kill" the threatening forces of Ritz and company.
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Read about Ritz and co. at.
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http://www.familyfarmers.com/beingessner_paul.htm
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[HFL]

So who is Paul Bessinger? Is he a farmer. I see his coloum in some newspaper. Does that mean he is qualified to tell me how to sell my grain?

[Hopperbin]

The wife and I had some good laughs after clicking the 1000 words button on the left.

[charliep]

wilagro

What is the business case for keeping barley under single desk (notice I differentiate as I learned yesterday from under CWB)?

I have just got done 2 days at Farm Tech (Alberta premier farm gathering) and barley hardly ever came in conversation - Alberta farmers have expressed and are looking for change. The biggest questions at the conference were about the wheat basis that will be announced on Febuary 25 in Winnipeg.

[charliep]

Article that has been referenced.

Agriculture Minister Invites Friends to Beat Up the CWB
There's something about the idea of cramming a lot of people into a small space that has a perverse appeal to humans. How else can you explain the existence of Mexico City? Why else would anyone take up the challenge of getting the greatest number of people in a phone booth or a Volkswagen Beetle? The Guinness Book of World Records doesn't recognize phone booth cramming records because it says phone booths vary greatly in size, but the unofficial record is 14. This is only half of the 27 college students whom Guinness says all occupied the interior of a VW Beetle at the same time.

The Conservative government in Ottawa seems fascinated with the idea of stuffing the most people with a single mind in one room. This explains Gerry Ritz, the ostrich-farmer agriculture-minister and his meeting slated for January 29 in the nation's capital. Ritz has called together the like-minded to find a way to brow-beat the Canadian Wheat Board into doing what he hasn't been able to do - get it to turn barley marketing over to the grain companies and maltsters and out of the control of farmers. Not that the Conservative haven't tried. They've done everything humanly possible, from trying to Gerry-mander the CWB director elections to firing the CEO of the CWB because he thought he should do what farmers told him to do.

The latest meeting of the mind in Ottawa includes a list of folks whose opinions on the CWB are well known. It goes something like this: four of Ritz's bureaucrats, four from the grain companies, four from the maltsters, three from the Western Barley Growers Association, two from the Grain Growers of Canada, two from the Marketing Choice Alliance, one from the Brewers Association, one from the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, one from the Alberta Barley Commission, and one from Grain Vision. Just to be sure the group has someone to yell at, Ritz has demanded the CWB send him a couple sacrificial lambs. Assuming the Minister himself attends this brain trust, the 26 invitees could, at least theoretically, hold the meeting in a Volkswagen with a bit of room to spare.

Ritz claims the CWB is not listening to industry and farm groups on the barley issue. Ritz himself seems overly interested in the "industry" position, given the way he has weighted attendance at his meeting. The farm groups he's invited are all composed of the same people. For example, Ross Ravelli and Doug Robertson are key people with the Marketing Choice Alliance and the Grain Growers of Canada. Doug Robertson is also a board member with the Barley Growers and Chair of the Alberta Barley Commission. The number of names that cross-over between the various organizations is hilarious. Between attending meetings and inventing names for new farm groups, you have to wonder when these folks get time to farm. Perhaps this in-breeding explains why you could get all the members of the Barley Growers into a pair of VW Beetles. It would only take one or two more to hold the Western Canadian Wheat Growers.

Notably, of course, Ritz forgot to invite any farm groups that have real memberships or that might not agree with his position. Where, for example, is Keystone Agriculture Producers from Manitoba? Its 4,670 members would fill 173 VW Beetles. Or how about the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities? Its annual meeting attracts enough delegates to fill 60 or 70 VWs to capacity. Even the rudderless Agriculture Producers of Saskatchewan get a few dozen Beetles-worth of people showing up at their conventions. (You have to think that the latter two groups would be incensed at being so ignored after their seeming idolization of the current government.)

Also not invited were the NFU - hundreds of VWs, Wild Rose Agriculture Producers - dozens of VWs or the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, whose member organizations could fill a squadron of Beetles, and whose President said the new Barley program devised by the CWB should be given a chance.

In his frenzy to take away farmer choice (farmers overwhelmingly elected directors who support the CWB single desk) Gerry Ritz is showing he is merely a clone of Chuck Strahl. Ritz's hyperbolic press releases ("It is time the CWB really listens and starts to put farmer and industry interests ahead of their own.") are even nuttier than those of Strahl. Like Strahl, Ritz isn't afraid of fabricating things to fan the flames. In announcing his January 29 meeting, Ritz maintains the CWB has refused to meet with industry groups on the new barley initiative. In reality, the CWB meets and has met with the industry extensively and continuously.

Strahl's own big fib was his contention that the CWB undersold the durum market in Algeria. Even after being shown 10 years of sales data, then Minister Strahl refused to change his tune. A story from inside Ottawa is that, after seeing the data, Strahl smilingly announced he would be sticking by his story since it was playing so well in the press.

Like Strahl before him, Gerry Ritz thinks he can win the CWB war with clumsy propaganda. Farmers know this one-sided consultation for what it is. The former ostrich farmer should get his head out of the sand.

(c) Paul Beingessner beingessner@sasktel.net

[charliep]

I am going to correct myself. Should be what is that business case for keeping malt barley under single desk. Feed barley is already open market and represents 80 % of western Canadian barley production. To put in perspective, Alberta represents about 50 % of western Canadian barley production.

[parsley]

"Feed barley is already open market"

This is not true. Feed barley owned by the producer CANNOT BE EXPORTED. Only CWB owned feed barley can be exported.

Feed barley is allowed to be sold DOMESTICALLY to the livestock market by the producer.

That does not include selling barley to a flour mill in Canada, though,I'll bet.

The CWB is probably buying tasers to police those young farmers that are just a little too cocky about their own marketing abilities.

Good CWB employment opportunity for frothers like Hardly and Mackeral.

Parsley

[charliep]

I stand corrected. Might note feed grains (including barley) can be imported into Canada by domestic users).

[Jay-mo]

If Simard thinks another vote will help the board, I think he's in for a surprise.
Maybe I hang around farmers who think too much like I do, but every one I have talked to about the barley vote tell me they would vote for the complete dismissal of the cwb instead of a dual market option given another vote.

[Jay-mo]

the need here is to contact both Simard and Goodale, below is the information for Goodale.
Any and all of us should call or email these two.
As Adam S mentioned above is it worth killing our domestic malting industry over this? How would this build any credibility by the Liberal party in Western Canada if we lose some of our value added?
Is the CWB really prepared for this as well? Can they really justify their roles as directors in denying farmers, and malters the right to survive?
Call your MP again, Call Goodale and Simard and give em hell. I have.
Erik

Ralph Goodale

310 University Park Drive
Regina, SK S4V 0Y8
(306) 585-2202
Riding President:
Sean McEachern

Riding Association Website:
http://www.wascanaliberal.ca

Provincial/Territorial Association:
Saskatchewan Liberal Association
845A McDonald Street
Regina, SK
S4N 2X5
Phone: (306) 522-8507
Fax: (306) 569-9271
http://www.saskliberal.ca