CWB needs full time auditor

[craig]

If the CWB remains the monoply buyer in western canada for milling wheat and export barley there is a lot of evidence that there is a need for someone to oversee there operations from the viewpoint of being fair and equitable to all producers. Playing around with basis, Adjustment factors, and the PRO's without having to prove justification indicates a non level playing field for producers who are forced to market throught them. Maybe if they had to justify their actions to a non partisan third party them we might have something we could all live with.Their present actions suggest decisions are made that are not reflective of the market place but more for political gain

[chaffmeister]

This is eerie. I floated a similar idea to a few people about 2 years ago, except I called it a "monitor", not an auditor. Just yesterday I mentioned it to someone. This person could also be an ombudsman, acting for farmers who have specific issues with the CWB.

But in an open market, the market should keep the CWB disciplined.

[mustardman]

AND WHO DO YOU THINK WILL KEEP THE OPEN MARKET HONEST ?? EVER TRY FINDING OUT WHAT CANOLA ,MUSTARD ,CANARY SEED,LENTILS,CHICKPEAS ETC ARE WORTH AFTER YOU HAVE 'TAKEN A PRICE' FROM AN OPEN MARKET COMPANY.
WHY IS THERE NO PRODUCERS CARS FOR OFF BOARD GRAIN?
HOW MUCH MORE WILL WE BE GOUGED BY RAIL CO.WITHOUT THE CWB TO ACT ON OUR BEHALF ?
WITHOUT CWB HOW SOON WILL WE BE GROWING GM WHEAT ?
WE HAVE UMTEEN DOZEN OPEN MARKET CROPS NOW WHY DO WE NEED 2 MORE???????

[Incognito]

Mustardman:

2 questions:

What has the CWB done to keep rail freights down?

Why is it that grain companies make more handling Board grains than non-board grains?

[northfarmer]

Mustardman....

We routinely get cars, in the same unpredictable fashion as cars arrive for board grains, for the shipping of our peas to the west coast, our oats the PNW or east, and the fert we take from the track and put in our fert bins....the rail situation has squat to do with the CWB....your are just spreading fear amongst those who do not know better...

i also find the price transparency quality of information i get on these non board markets to be of much higher quality and integrity than i get from the single desk market source i am forced by law to market my milling grade quality wheats.....

the more open markets the better......the more strictly commercial our rail, grain and logistic systems get the more efficent they will be....

the only change i fear is no change at all.....

[mustardman]

Incognito,

I believe it was the 95/96 winter of poor rail service that the CWB got CPrail to cough up 15 million and an undisclosed amount from CN rail. What do you think Agricore would have got ?

Northfarmer, deregulation and competition amongst producers while on the other side of the equation the monopolies remain stronger than ever ie. rail companies, seed co's, fert ,
chemical co's, grain companies etc.
Are you telling me that we should only have monopolies that we have to purchase from but not have one that we sell with ???

[Incognito]

and the answer to the second question would be?

[TOM4CWB]

Mustardman,

Monopolies and market concentration breed the same... till two entities survive that balance each other and can co-exist in a relative peace.

If we grain growers are smart we will create opportunities to diversify both suppliers and marketing agents... and reduce concentration. A well functioning market requires multiple participants... on both the buy and sell sides. It has proven time and time again to most effectively allocate resourses.

Government regulation is never fast enough to react... or responsible for blunders in management... therefore the market driven system is the only reasonable solution.

Like Democracy is known not to be a perfect solution for governance... but the alternatives seldom create long term solutions that bring prosperity.

Respecting our neighbour... and their property; is at the base of a free and democratic society.

We obviously do not have this respect in Canada... for if we did the grain marketing legislation just defeated would have been allowed by those not directly affected.

Same with the CWB "single desk" that confiscates property it didn't create... in the name of communism... which has been shown (over and over) not to be viable in long term economic management capability.

[northfarmer]

so, what monopolies do i purchase from?.....there are none.....by definition a monopoly is a single supplier/seller in a market....I have a number of different suppliers for all demand needs on my farming operation.. ...i also have mutiple buyers for all my output, with the exception of my milling grade wheat and all non domestic feed use production of barley and wheat...

you may be thinking oligopoly...i recomend a book on Macroeconomics as a casual read so we can have a more intelligent discussion on farm economics in this thread...

...this is not about farmers competing with farmers, it is about market efficency and feedom to market or to some extent freedom to operate....

...sure I would love to have monopoly power to market my production, but the single desk concept within the desingated area does not give me that market power....for one it does not even cover the total market supply in Canada, let alone N America, or the balance of global production for that matter....and this true from of monopoly market power for such commodities will never exist....