Tue, November 21, 2006
Corruption Icon Canadian Wheat Board entrenches Liberal legacy
By Paul Jackson
The Canadian Wheat Board is a powerful monopoly and western Canadian farmers have no choice but to sell their wheat and barley to this entity or face dire consequences.
When the occasional farmer has dared to defy the dictates of the board and trucked his wheat or barley down to the U.S. to sell it for the best price he can negotiate, he's often ended up in handcuffs, leg shackles and tossed into a jail cell on his return to Canada.
But now, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl are planning to follow a growing chorus from individual farmers and organizations such as the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and make membership in the wheat board voluntary.
This has the Liberals hopping mad.
The wheat board has often been described as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Liberal party and a huge patronage operation for Liberal governments.
Despite its $6 billion in annual sales, and a large staff, no outside agency or official is allowed to look at its books to see just how profitable it is, where the money goes and how it is decided who gets contracts for advertising or polling.
Indeed, when the Liberal-dominated Senate sent back to the House of Commons the Conservatives' Federal Accountability Act -- that's the act calling for more ethics and openness in government -- one of the 'amendments' struck out by the Liberals was the guarantee to an access to information clause covering the wheat board.
Sounds like a pretty innocuous clause.
But then why do the Liberals shudder at the very thought some outsider might be able to go through the board's books or see how directors are appointed and contracts handed out?
Why are the internal operations of the wheat board guarded so jealously?
Here's another issue to get suspicious about.
Generally it's younger, more energetic farmers who want to go out on their own.
The board's hierarchy knows this, so for years it has kept inactive producers on its membership list who get to vote in elections for new directors -- the ones the government doesn't appoint directly -- and they tend to vote for candidates who want to maintain the monopoly.
The Conservatives are moving to de-list inactive producers, and just months ago found some 34% of 'eligible' electors had made no wheat sales in the past two years.
Almost 10% had made no sales in almost a decade!
So the Conservatives want to ensure future elections are conducted on a level playing field.
The board -- and the Liberals -- do not like that at all.
They want to ensure the board keeps its totalitarian powers and is allowed to continue to operate behind closed doors.
One question that has never been answered is why only Western Canadian wheat and barley farmers come under the rigid authority of the board.
Eastern Canadian wheat and barley farmers can sell their grain to any buyer, something that would land -- and has landed -- western farmers in a jail cell.
Political colleagues tell me to watch for some startling revelations when the board's monopoly finally ends and when it does come under access to information laws.
Revelations that may make the Quebec sponsorship scandal look tame by comparison.
Corruption Icon Canadian Wheat Board entrenches Liberal legacy
By Paul Jackson
The Canadian Wheat Board is a powerful monopoly and western Canadian farmers have no choice but to sell their wheat and barley to this entity or face dire consequences.
When the occasional farmer has dared to defy the dictates of the board and trucked his wheat or barley down to the U.S. to sell it for the best price he can negotiate, he's often ended up in handcuffs, leg shackles and tossed into a jail cell on his return to Canada.
But now, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl are planning to follow a growing chorus from individual farmers and organizations such as the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and make membership in the wheat board voluntary.
This has the Liberals hopping mad.
The wheat board has often been described as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Liberal party and a huge patronage operation for Liberal governments.
Despite its $6 billion in annual sales, and a large staff, no outside agency or official is allowed to look at its books to see just how profitable it is, where the money goes and how it is decided who gets contracts for advertising or polling.
Indeed, when the Liberal-dominated Senate sent back to the House of Commons the Conservatives' Federal Accountability Act -- that's the act calling for more ethics and openness in government -- one of the 'amendments' struck out by the Liberals was the guarantee to an access to information clause covering the wheat board.
Sounds like a pretty innocuous clause.
But then why do the Liberals shudder at the very thought some outsider might be able to go through the board's books or see how directors are appointed and contracts handed out?
Why are the internal operations of the wheat board guarded so jealously?
Here's another issue to get suspicious about.
Generally it's younger, more energetic farmers who want to go out on their own.
The board's hierarchy knows this, so for years it has kept inactive producers on its membership list who get to vote in elections for new directors -- the ones the government doesn't appoint directly -- and they tend to vote for candidates who want to maintain the monopoly.
The Conservatives are moving to de-list inactive producers, and just months ago found some 34% of 'eligible' electors had made no wheat sales in the past two years.
Almost 10% had made no sales in almost a decade!
So the Conservatives want to ensure future elections are conducted on a level playing field.
The board -- and the Liberals -- do not like that at all.
They want to ensure the board keeps its totalitarian powers and is allowed to continue to operate behind closed doors.
One question that has never been answered is why only Western Canadian wheat and barley farmers come under the rigid authority of the board.
Eastern Canadian wheat and barley farmers can sell their grain to any buyer, something that would land -- and has landed -- western farmers in a jail cell.
Political colleagues tell me to watch for some startling revelations when the board's monopoly finally ends and when it does come under access to information laws.
Revelations that may make the Quebec sponsorship scandal look tame by comparison.
Comment