CWB Director Meeting

[bbrindle]

Wow!! We've had quite a discussion here!!!

I encourage everyone to take their thoughts and voice their issues and concerns at the CWB director meetings that are starting tonight (March 5) and running until March 29 in over 30 locations. You''ll find the details at the CWB website at www.cwb.ca under "CWB Director Supper Meetings".

The CWB says "These meetings will be an opportunity to talk to your director about the major issues facing the CWB. And more importantly, it will be your chance to offer an opinion on what you want your CWB to look like in the future. Your director will be there to listen."

I found last year that the agenda and how much airtime farmers got varied dramatically depending on which director was holding the meeting. One of the discussants offered to report back on the meeting he is attending. I encourage more of you to do the same. If you were the director, what did you hear farmers telling you?

Agri-ville is a great forum to share what the directors were told, all across the prairies.

[parsley]

Tom4CWB, did you get into Chas' dandelion wine? Waiting for a report on the meeting!
Parsley

[TOM4CWB]

Parsley,

Boy are you ever sharp!

I just did my first entry over on the Export Manufacturing Feed Agreement.

I am going to get my notes out and work on the report!

I did see some rubarb drink, but we didn't get into it!

Hey Chas, maybe you could do a report to?

[chas]

CWB no dinner meeting in Red Deer Alta. on March 5th. A good crowd attended mostly front row people which included people from every farm (mis-quoting) paper in Western Canada and then the backroom hecklers were also present at the back of the hall. The evening started out with a joke from the MC and ended up as a joke for anyone who attended.
It started with some boring talk from Mr.David Hilton director and chair of the Finance Committee and continued on with Mr, Geddes who's in charge of Farmer PR. (Nap time here).
Then Jim Chatenay warmed the crowd up with some chest thumping about leading farmers into the freedom of the great beyond. (away from the CWB). He gave no clear insight into the direction he wanted to led us but he obtained a good applause for his no detail direction. But I think the word freedom confused the people into a positive response for Chatenay.
Then Mr. Nixon Chair of the Ontario Wheat Board gave us an interesting overview of the workings of the Board and proclaimed that farmers do not have a dual marketing system in Ontario. Much to Mr. Chatenay"s surprise.
The OWB allows 150,000 tonnes of farmer exemption for wheat which has to be applied for yearly by individual farmers. It took four years before the total exemption was taken up by farmers. Mr. Nixon did not know where the exempted grain went or for what price it obtained. But he did say they grew mostly soft wheat and that it was basicly all consumed within a 200 mile radis of where it was grown. They did supply some specialty mills in Ohio and Illionis that are unable to get local supply because they don't grow enought. He didn't tell us why it wasn't a dual market and no one ask him why he didn't consider it a dual. I assume because it still required permission from the board.
Now Mr. Harper Chairman of the National Citizens Colition Committee gave us a talk on democracy and freedom and how hard it was to obtain either one of them. But lets fight on.
Then Mr. Steve Snider Organic farmer talked of how his rights to sell his product to the USA was being infringed upon by the CWB. He proclaims he has added value to his grain and should maybe deserve special treatment to export. Wheat is wheat but a mind set in some consumers made it a special value added product?????
Mr. Rod Flaman Director of CWB spoke and sounds like he will show some promise for producers but just getting his feet wet for now.
Well we have gone from boring to interesting. Now we are going into the WWF portion of the meeting the question and answer period.
Several people asked some meaningless questions of the past workings of the board,( financial and policy)and received unsatisfactory answers for their untrusting minds. Some people were called liers and some incompetent but phsyical violence was not resorted to.
During the whole meeting no one submitted a clear thought on the benifits of a new marketing direction we should be taking other then freedom.
Freedom at what price I would like to have questioned but the nay sayers of the board had control of the mike and my curfew of 10:00 PM had run out.
The meeting was a poor investment for my part because it centred on being negative.
But Mr.Chatenay being the Policeman on the CWB did serve us donuts for lunch.
Tom4cwb will give you a different an more detailed view point I'm sure.
I do have a solution if anyone is interested (pay attention CWB and directors) just ask me for it.
Chas

[rockpile]

Chas,
Hard to read your thoughts here. You are telling us that the financial reporting aspects of the CWB are too boring and intricate for it's critics to be involved with. So where do all of the questions come from? Dreams? Then you say that the OWB does not offer 'dual marketing', to the surprise of our Director? Why didn't he already know that? A large and energetic crowd? There were 73 there when the meeting started. One meeting for all of District 2. And in Red Deer. This Director never wanders far from home. What is he afraid of? And, if you look through CWB financial reports, why does he cost us serfs so much, when he is so invisible? Perhaps the most revealing thing was the assertion that this wasn't about better incomes, but about freedom from 'CWB' enslavement. Pardon me, but as a businessman, I'd say you 'all' have it backwards.
Rockpile

[TOM4CWB]

Hi Brenda, Chas, Rockpile, Parsley, and all you other fine souls out there!

I just am getting my minutes of the meeting double checked, have about nine pages so will put them on a seperate string.

It was really good to closely review what happened, I am leaving the question answer period alone for the most part and just concentrating on the information given by the speakers.

I really think hidden insights are in the content, and look forward to comments when the meeting minutes are up!

Please be patient, I want to get them right!

[chas]

Rockpile: You got my thoughts right on your freedom and enslavement statment. The meeting just disappointed me as I was prepared to hear some positive economical solution to the CWB. It didn't happen in my opinion. Mr. Chatenay appeared to be the boy hero for the misinformed and disenchanted. We haven't seen him in our area of district 2 as most farmers here are pro CWB.
But lets wait for Tom's report to show you that I was likely napping. Chas

[TOM4CWB]

Chas,

I hope that my record works for you, I sincerely tried to give an honest report.

I think if you look closely at Ken Nixon's Presentation there were solutions that Ontario uses that the CWB can implement!

That was the intent of the meeting, to get people to think outside the normal CWB way of doing things, and I saw good results.

What do you think?

[chas]

Tom4cwb: Your minutes were word for word of the meeting. Good report Tom. I quess my expectations were to high to appreciate this meeting. I wanted to hear a more detailed solution that would mark the benefits of a dual market for the average farmer. Chas

[TOM4CWB]

Chas,

You are very kind Chas,

I hope the connection can be made between orderly voluntary marketing and the benefits that flow from it.

Ontario has hit the happy medium between "open unregulated marketing" and "Single Desk Monpoly Buying."

Of course not all Ontario farmers are 100% happy with this hybred. It sure has fixed many problems with respect to flexibility and meeting wheat farmers "marketing needs".

I see the Ontario situation as one that allows accountability, with competition the proving point that cannot be disputed!

What do you think Chas, Jim Chatenay's #1 option was the 10% Ontario Producer exemption program, should this not be given a try?

Isn't orderly Ontario type competition reasonable, in exchange for the satifaction that we are allowed to live in harmony and respect and embrace the diversity of ideas and cultures around us?

[bbrindle]

CWB Director meetings are being held in over 30 towns. We've had a thorough report from District 2. Has anyone attended a meeting in any other towns? Just a few sentences or comments would be welcome.

[parsley]

This is an account of the District #8 Meeting in Saskatchewan, Brenda, It was e-mailed to me by someone reliable who was there and took notes. I didn't attend any of the meetings in Sask or Alberta or Manitoba, so these are not my notes.




District # 8 Wild Wheat Board Meeting in Saskatchewan

Growers were shaking their heads and wondering was there ever a wilder Wheat Board meeting in history after it was finally over.Yes, the meeting in
Weyburn on March 6. The big McKenna Hall there was virtually full, estimated at over 200, and the discontent simmering through the prairies in this time of farm crisis, boiled to the surface. High profile farm radio personality Jack Dawes fought hard to maintain order

Trying to answer a barrage of questions, Wheat Board spokesmen including
CWB Chairman Ken Ritter kept protesting that the CWB believed farmers were continuing to signal that they wanted the monopoly to continue. Yet grower after grower protested that every bit of evidence including many polls,
indicate increasing numbers of growers want out from the monopoly.

The CWB's Ritter said the board is focusing on several issues today.
The auditor-general is now looking at the Board's accountability on grain
matters. And Adjustment payments from Ottawa are being looked at in detail.

Newly elected farmer directors Rod Flaman of Sask. and Jim Chantney of
Alberta who both favor an end to the monopoly, and freedom for growers who
want it, were prominent at the meeting, . And Chantney particularly was
outspoken and critical of many of the monopoly's programs and actions,
presenting an unyielding voice.

"Yes," he admitted, "I am a renegade, I always resist authority....if its bad.
I do step out of line. I want to get a voluntary board as quickly as possible."

He outlined his goals. "Thousands of farmers are forced to participate in
the Board's programs today. Its not voluntary. But it must become voluntary.
Growers want choice. I want the board to be there for those who want it for themselves. But it won't be around if we don't act soon. The present board will self-destruct."

One unidentified grower answered what appeared to him a smug, everything-is-fine answer from a board bureaucrat, crying out, "Look at all of us here. We are white-haired. Not a young farmer among us. You have driven all the young farmers out of Saskatchewan. The province's population hasn't increased in 50 years. There is little left."

Some growers there favored the monopoly. But they stayed largely quiet
in this noisy meeting. And in discussions later, a few growers estimated that
two thirds of those there were exasperated at their lack of freedom, and wanted the monopoly ended.

Chantney said, "We must stop this constant bickering. We want voluntary
marketing. Retain the monopoly for off shore sales only. And begin
issuing no cost export license upon request.'

He told a story to illustrate his point. "On my farm, I have a big yellow
dog. I own him. But I have no control over him. He won't do what I want him
to do. He is always in the road. I've got to feed him. I call him Wheat
Board. "

One Board spokesman suggested growers were better off farming in Canada than the U.S. Well-known Grower Herb Axton, responded, "I would like to farm south of border. They have 275 elevators in the state south of me. "

As Board reps tried to answer questions, growers felt they were talking in
circles and were evasive. Growers began shouting, things like "That's not
true," or "That simply isn't believable," or "It doesn't work that way at all."

Organic grower Bill Reece, Stockholm, Saskatchewan, spoke out, "You must tear down this vicious buy-back law and let us go!" And organic grower John Husband, Wawota, Saskatchewan, said that despite its protests, the CWB does have the power to free growers from the monopoly if it wants to. And in fact, he said it doesn't have the authority under CWB Act to deny growers the licenses ." In his research, he has found that the CWB misrepresents the act.

It became blazingly clear in that meeting that CWB officials and the growers
are on totally different wave lengths, that they simply couldn't talk to one
another.

[TOM4CWB]

Well,

I guess this shouldn't surprise anyone, especially after the CWB is being so ignorant about Durum and Organic, and District 8 is big Durum and Organic country!

Every time the CWB takes on a specific group like Organic growers, durum growers, feed barley growers, they get sucked deeper and deeper into this black hole they have created for themselves!

I can’t believe they actually are so ignorant!

Now that the non-board feed barley market is significantly higher than the PRO, the CWB has opened the C series feed barley 100% before they even accepted it or finished signing up for it.

So here we go again, the CWB is short of feed barley! About all they will get now is seed screenings at about 35lb/bu!

On the CWB feed barley program, I would like to see if anyone had something good to say about a program that they got sucked into paying money to receive less money than everyone else!

Is the CWB sending the message the they are not interested in marketing feed barley this spring or summer or what?

The initial price increase virtually wiped out any advantage the program gave!

As I see it, it was a value adding work project for CWB staff, was there any comments from anyone at any meeting about this program?

[chas]

Jim Chatenay, Parsley, T0w4cwb, rockpile and Allansmith y'all seem to want the USA border to disappear and that would solve all of our problems. But I believe that we don't know what problems are until we open that border. Mr. Chatenay states that the CWB be kept just for off shore sales. I say all export sales to make it easier to keep harmony with one seller. Lets go after the domestic open market to create jobs and industry in downtown Saskatchwan. Don't let the CWB dump grain back into the domestic market. Lets export value added. We need a definition of value added. Chas

[ianben]

Hi Chas
I must agree with your point about the US according to the last figures I saw each US farmer on recieved $14500 in aid and benifits. The corresponding figures for Canada was $9200 and $9500 for EU.
Why you think US will grant easy accesss to this highly subsidied market, when you are FREE. I fail to see?
I know their is a trade agreement but I bet there is some loophole or regulation if large volumes of Canadian grain move South.
OR THE PRICE WILL JUST FALL IN THE US.
Thank-you Canadian farmers we are now all worse off.
We must co-operate we can help one another to a better future.
Regards Ian