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:

Union Joins Campaign to Save Wheat Board

NUPGE is the National Union of Government and General Employees. Harper recently fired the chair of the Wheat Board. He has also appointed opponents of the Wheat BOard monopoly to the board. It is his right to fire the chair and to be fair he campaigned on a promise to do away with the monopoly and allow competition in marketing. However even a large majority of those who voted Conservative probably support the monopoly or single desk selling. The large grain marketers and the US are keen to see the Wheat BOard gone.

NUPGE joins campaign to save the Canadian Wheat Board

'Corporate agribusiness would dearly like
to see the end of the CWB.' - James Clancy

Ottawa (23 Nov. 2006) - The 340,000-member National Union of Public and General Employees is joining the campaign to save the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and asking the Harper Conservative government not to dismantle the marketing agency as big-time agribusiness is demanding.

The union is urging all Canadians who want orderly grain marketing maintained to add their voices to a lobbying campaign launched by the National Farmers Union (NFU).

The NFU is a non-partisan farm organization made up of thousands of members from across Canada. It promotes policies in the interests of family farms. The NFU has long been a strong supporter of marketing programs that maximize returns to farmers, especially through the wheat board.

The farmers union has started an internet-based campaign which allows all wheat board supporters to easily send a common message to Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl.

Turning clock back to the 1930s

"The Canadian Wheat Board Act must be respected and there can be no unilateral changes by the Harper government," says NFU president Stewart Wells.

"The true marketing advantage of the CWB is the single desk. By removing the single desk, the Harper Conservative plan gives Cargill Corporation and friends 'market choice' – the choice to source grain from Canadian market one day and from the Brazilians or U.S. the next, each time playing farmers in one nation against those in the other," Wells says.

"The Harper government is intent on turning the clock back to the unsuccessful voluntary CWB of the 1930s. The Harper government is recycling a failed, tired idea of the old Conservative government of R. B. Bennett."

James Clancy

In a letter to the federal agriculture minister, NUPGE president James Clancy says many NUPGE members live and work in western Canada and, along with thousands of other union members across Canada, are strong supporters of the board.

"Our members everywhere are committed to ensuring Canada’s economy operates with maximum fairness, and protects the interests of individuals who must deal with the incredible power of large corporations," Clancy writes.

"That is why we are completely opposed to the moves your government is making to deny Canada’s farmers the market protection they have had for decades through the CWB. We understand your government is responding to the continuing complaints of the U.S. government about the CWB’s grain marketing monopoly.

"For years the U.S. government, through the WTO (World Trade Organization) and in other venues, has tried to eliminate the monopoly powers of the CWB. We also understand that corporate agribusiness would dearly like to see the end of the CWB."

Praised by auditor-general

Clancy said marketing boards help farmers deal with unbalanced markets, and the CWB is a prime example of their value. The agency is also run efficiently, according to a 2002 report by the federal auditor general. It returns 98% of revenue to farmers and adds over $2 million a day to the western farm economy.

"The CWB is farmer-controlled and it acts as an agent for farmers: it sets a price, negotiates with the customers, arranges handling with the elevator companies, and delivery with one of the railways. The grain farmer then gets paid the world price for their grain. This arrangement also gives farmers bargaining power to negotiate freight and handling with the railways on the 350,000 or so grain cars shipped each year," he adds.

"We have witnessed past attacks on the CWB, which were simply naked grabs for revenue by the private grain handling companies and the foreign-based flour millers. The only difference today is that the issue is being cloaked in the misleading rhetoric of freedom and choice," Clancy notes.

"We want to add our voice to the voices of the thousands of farmers and their supporters who are calling for the retention of the Canadian Wheat Board. We are calling on your government to drop its plans to destroy this tool that has worked so effectively for our farmers for so many decades. And we are calling on you, as the Minister responsible for protecting the interests of Canadian farmers, to stand up to the U.S. government and the interests of agribusiness by working to defend CWB, and the economic rights of Canada’s farmers." NUPGE

More information:
• Join the National Farmers Union campaign to save the Canadian Wheat Board
• Why workers everywhere should support the Canadian Wheat Board

Web posted by NUPGE: 23 November 2006