Harper's Hit on Grain Farmers

This is gives a bit of interesting history of the Board. It is so evident that the big grain traders are opposed to the board and the US govt. that it is amazing that so many farmers have fallen for the dual marketing option on the barley plebiscite. This article is a bit misleading in that although the plebiscite did show that only a few wanted the board removed from marketing barley at all, if you add those who wanted dual marketing (the largest minority) than you have a majority against the monopoly. This is what the Harper government conveniently did. The whole three question plebiscite was a cleverly engineered farce which as usual uses the sucker phrase "free choice" to dupe the farmers. I really do not have any faith in the Liberal's desire to preserve the board. They were about to sabotage it at trade negotiations as I recall. The Liberals were the Conservatives going slow as far as the Board is concerned.



Harper's Hit on Grain Farmers
Ag Minister Chuck Strahl. Tories will aid US firms by gutting Canadian Wheat Board.
By Albert Horner and David Orchard
Published: April 23, 2007


TheTyee.ca
For a year the Harper government has been threatening to destroy the power of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). Agriculture minister Chuck Strahl (who represents Chilliwack, B.C.) says barley will be removed from the Board's jurisdiction by August 1; a decision on wheat will follow.
In the early 1930s, there was no CWB. Prairie farmers took the price offered by the large grain companies or took their wheat home. Grain sold for a few cents a bushel. Farmers were driven off the land in droves.
In response to pressure and thousands of farmers demanding an end to the unfettered power of the grain giants, R.B. Bennett made a historic radio address referring to "unconscionable monopolistic purchasers" and "economic parasites." He set up the CWB as a single seller of prairie wheat. In the 1940s Mackenzie King extended the Board's power to include oats and barley.
Starting from nothing in 1935, the Board has grown into the world's largest marketer of wheat and barley, one of Canada's biggest earners of foreign currency and perhaps the most prestigious marketing board in the world.
A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study described as "huge" the $1.6 billion annual economic impact of the Winnipeg-based Board, "with Western Canada as a major economic beneficiary."
As OPEC gave undeniable clout to oil producing countries, so the CWB's quasi-monopoly put marketing power in the hands of farmers.
'Communist' upstart?

Since its founding, the U.S. grain companies dominating the world grain trade have fought this impressive upstart. Earlier, they called it "communist." In the last 15 years, the U.S. has mounted a dozen trade challenges seeking its demise.
The reason is simple. The Wheat Board returns all revenue earned to the farmer, minus a miniscule per bushel administrative charge.
Loss of the CWB would move the Canadian grain trade into U.S. hands virtually over night. Hundreds of millions more in profits annually would drain from the farmer to the "five sisters" that dominate the international grain trade, none Canadian. The Port of Churchill -- with the bulk of its business from the CWB -- and the entire east-west rail system including the great grain terminals in ports from Québec City to Prince Rupert would be at risk.
If the Canadian Wheat Board goes, who believes the rest of Canada's supply-managed agriculture is safe?
Since assuming power the Harper government has waged an unrelenting attack on the CWB -- firing its popular CEO, Adrian Measner, stacking the board with government appointees who detest it, and holding a fraudulent barley "plebiscite" (complete with gag orders, a secret voters' list, traceable ballots and deliberately misleading questions). Still, only 13.8 per cent voted to remove barley from the Board.
This unprecedented assault on the internationally respected CWB by its own government has not gone unnoticed. Standard and Poor's recently downgraded the Board's formerly pristine credit rating, and according to the largest buyer of Canada's wheat, China's Yang Hong," Once the CWB's single-desk system is abolished, we think the Canadian wheat industry may lose advantages to other competitors." He said his company may turn to other countries if Canada can no longer guarantee reliable supply and quality. Mexico's Grupo Altex president wrote, "We would hate to see you adopting the U.S. model, where we have to deal with the large trading houses that always try to take advantage of both farmers and clients like us and very seldom, if ever, deliver what they promise."
Harper majority will seal fate
But the Wheat Board is not gone yet. For over 70 years it has -- with Ottawa's backing -- withstood American hostility. Now the Harper government is about to do what the U.S. alone has been unable to accomplish; it plans, by order-in council, to strip the Board of its marketing power on barley.
Once before, a Canadian government joined the Americans against its own farmers. Following its signature on the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1989, the Mulroney government took oats from the Board. In 1993, it tried the same with barley, but was stopped by a successful court challenge. The government changed and Ralph Goodale and Jean Chrétien held a fair vote among farmers, restored barley to the Board, where it has remained ever since, and introduced the Canadian Wheat Board Act putting farmer elected directors in control.
This time, too, a court challenge may follow. However, as in 1993, only a change of government will secure the Board's future. A Harper majority will see the CWB gone, and quickly. The new Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion, behaving more like a friend of the western farmer than the Alberta based Harper administration, has promised to restore the Board's powers putting full control of its future back into farmers' hands. Whatever changes the CWB needs -- and every farmer knows of some -- will be made by farmers, not imposed from Ottawa or Washington.
Today, the Liberal party is truer to John Diefenbaker's defence of the West than the party claiming his name.
Related Tyee stories:

Wheat Board loses monopoly on barley marketing

The mantra of free choice seems to be very attractive to farmers. As the National Farmer's Union points out there is really no difference between removing the Wheat Board altogether from marketing barley and the choice option because the Wheat Board will be unable to compete with the large grain companies as it lacks the capital and facilities. The Harper government is dedicated to following the wishes of the US big grain interests that have been fighting the Wheat Board for ages. This is the beginning of the end for the Wheat Board, not that the Liberals were much better since they would have ended up bargaining away the Wheat Board monopoly as well most likely. It is only a matter of time until the Wheat Board becomes a thing of the past just as the Mantoba Wheat Pool and many Dairy Co-operatives. The farmers seem to have given up on the successful farmer run organisations that helped protect them from domination by large agricorps. With Harper the agricorp victory will be complete but then it was evolving that way anyway. Harper is just the Libeerals moving more quickly. It is interesting that no option got a majority but the government in effect picked the largest minority position.

There was less than 40 percent of those eligible who voted indicating that well over sixty percent of farmers dont even have enough interest to vote! Pitiful. It is farm groups that were very active in establishing such progressive institutions as co-operatives, credit unions, and even the first North American medicare system in Saskatchewan. As usual the Alberta vote is most to the right.



Farmers vote to end wheat board's barley monopoly
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 | 1:46 PM ET
CBC News
Western Canadian farmers have voted to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on barley sales.

"It's time to move to more marketing choice, and we want to move to that as quickly as possible," federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said Wednesday in Ottawa.

Barley Plebiscite Results
Retain single desk 37.8%
CWB loses monopoly, farmers can sell to other buyer 48.4%
No CWB role in marketing barley 13.8%
Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
A total of 62 per cent of just over 29,000 farmers who cast eligible ballots in the mail-in vote said they wanted the board out of the barley market altogether, or for the board to be maintained in a competitive market.

Another 38 per cent said they wanted to maintain the status quo.

Of those who didn't want the status quo, about 48 per cent said they wanted to choose where to sell their barley and about 14 per cent said the wheat board should have no role in selling barley.

Strahl said he will now take steps to revise the rules to remove the barley monopoly by Aug. 1.



Instead of amending the Canadian Wheat Board Act through Parliament, it will be done through changing the regulations, Strahl said.

"We're quite sure we can take it out through regulation," Strahl said.

The board's directors have said that without a monopoly, the wheat board will have to get out of the barley market, because it won't be able to compete without government funding for access to ports and grain elevators.

Strahl said farmers have spoken and the wheat board should heed what they're saying.

"They have an obligation to come up with a business plan that addresses that concern," he said.

National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells called the plebiscite "hideously flawed" and misleading.

"I’m not surprised at the outcome, because when you ask a misleading question, you will get a misleading result," Wells said in a news release. "The anti-CWB options, combined together, received 62 per cent, but Option 2 was deliberately misleading and offered farmers an unrealistic expectation."

The plebiscite results showed that the strongest support for the single desk system to continue was in Manitoba (51 per cent) and Saskatchewan (45 per cent), while in Alberta, only 21 per cent supported the status quo.

On the other hand, Alberta farmers were the most likely to support having a choice in where to market their barley. About 63 per cent said they supported that option. In Saskatchewan, the figure for the "CWB plus marketing choice" option was 42 per cent. In Manitoba, it was 34.6 per cent.

The debate over possible changes to grain marketing has been the talk of farm country for months.

Supporters of the government say they've waited for years for the right to decide how to market their own grain and the change will let them take advantage of the best spot prices.

Farmers in favour of the wheat board argue the status quo helps guarantee stable incomes and the best prices.

Even with barley taken away from the wheat board, the board will retain its export monopoly on wheat.

Strahl said earlier this year there's no immediately plans for a wheat plebiscite, but one will be held at some point.

Of the roughly 80,000 ballots sent out, 29,067 were returned. That includes 15,327 votes from Saskatchewan, 9,881 in Alberta, 3,703 in Manitoba and 156 in B.C.

With files from the Canadian Press

Wheat Board Barley vote not secret?

This is from leftdog's blog. I have heard nothing of this on the mainstream news as yet. It is to be noted that the vote is not binding and there are three choices. Strahl has not said what percentage need to vote for each choice to act.


Friday, February 16, 2007
Are Tories Cheating AGAIN On Farmers Barley Vote - Each Ballot Has Unique Identifier

Canadian grain farmers are currently voting on a Tory proposal on Barley marketing. This vote is a test run by Chuck Strahl and the Conservative government in advance of their plan to kill the Canadian Wheat Board's single desk marketing mandate.

Farmers in western Canada have been receiving their 'barley ballots' and are shocked to find that each ballot has a unique identifier which would allow the Federal government to know how each farmer voted!

More Harper style democracy? More Conservative bullying tactics? More Tory cheating?

KPMG is handling the vote for Agriculture Minister Strahl. KPMG spokesman Jeff Thomas said the vote is secret, even though there is a number on each ballot that identifies the farmer to whom it was sent. Nice!!!

Canadians are getting tired of Tory nonsense. The majority of western farmers are for sure!

CBC.ca

posted by leftdog at Friday, February 16, 2007 | Permalink