Is the CWB trustworthy?

[parsley]

Chaffmeister, in your anecdote, you are describing how the Minister and the CWB communicates with farmers. As you are aware, the Auditor General is taking a look at the CWB. One of the areas he is examining is Communications. What does the CWB tell farmers? Here is an actual example with transcript quotes:

The CWB told organic farmers that the CWB legislation did not allow organic farmers out of the monopoly. These farmers didn't believe what the CWB was telling them because in reality, export licenses are being handed out almost as freely as Canadian passports are. So the farmers went to the Standing Committee of Agriculture on 7 June, 2001. The issue was raised by Committee M.P. Garry Brietkreuz (page 32)

"Mr. Ritter, under the present legislation, you didn't answer the key question - can the present act, the Canadian Wheat Board Act, grant licences to organic producers without forcing them to go through the buyback program? Under the present legislation can the wheat board grant licences?"

Ken Ritter:

"Mr. Chairman, through you, I haven't got a black and white answer to that. That's subject to legal interpretation. We believe the buyback is required...."

"....what I said is, it's a questionable legal argument whether it does or doesn't require it. The information that we have as directors is that it probably does require that." [require the buyback]

Ritter also says:
"................. could the CWB have granted a no-cost export licence? Probably we could have. There's a legal question to that, whether it is in law possible or not...."

So, Mr. Ritter answer to farmers is: maybe
Maybe not...
don't know.

This is how the CWB communicates with farmers

One other observation about thalpenny's comment, "Farmers ultimately control the direction of the organization ". halpenny, of course , has every right to his personal political opinion. And Agrivillers, in order to avoid reader confusion, should be well aware that thalpenny's personal philosophy could very well differ from the CWB Act, and his communication, therefore, should not be assumed as fact .

Parsley

[TOM4CWB]

Parsley,

The thorny issue of who controls the CWB is at the very base of CWB problems.

Chaffmiester has it right, the CWB is sheilded in a management flack jacket, typical of any government long overdue for housecleaning.

Plausable deniability and someone else has to approve that change, (by the way we don't have time to go through all those hoops) are civil servants favorite reasons why nothing should change.

If we operated our farms with these same management structures, nothing would be left ot them in short order.

I am not saying that all CWB decisions are bad, or that sometimes that moving at the speed of a glacier is all bad!

I would rather look at the mountains, enjoy the wildlife, and enjoy life, rather than being held back by tons of CWB ice that are meant to weigh on my mind, and cool my heals.

The fact is that Ralphie G. is responsible for the CWB, of that there can be no question. What he does with these responsibilities is known in the depths of the Ottawa civil service, and I know many people are kept busy watching this glacier melt each day!