The Canadian Wheat Board is fighting for its life, yet misses the most important thing, the farmer.
As the District 2 CWB director, I attended the three so-called producer information meetings set up by the CWB last week in Medicine Hat, Camrose and Falher. Having read some of the media reports of the previous week’s meetings in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, I knew that these meetings were all about politics and an all-or-nothing message from the CWB chair and keeping the monopoly.
Every meeting was literally a carbon copy of each other, with literally the same scripted questions, and sometimes the same people asking those questions. Organizations friendly to the CWB, political or farmer based, and even the Communist Party of Canada was at the doors of each meeting. Some setting up displays in the meeting hall and asking for financial help for their cause added to the proof that these meetings were all about maintaining the status quo and nothing else.
These meetings were supposed to be information meetings on how the CWB will move forward for all producers, yet sadly it was not. In my personal view, I was embarrassed for the farmers who had come to the meetings to hear about the future, to our staff who worked hard in setting up these meetings, and senior management who attended.
Fact is that the minister of Agriculture informed us when he visited the CWB offices back in May: this government is going to repeal the current CWB Act and replace it with a new act. By doing that, the government then supersedes any requirement that is in the current CWB Act, therefore making the requirement for a plebiscite invalid.
Our internal counsel has advised us that the government does have the authority to do such, and also advised us that holding our own plebiscite will be non-binding on the government.
What has been missing at these meetings and the history of the CWB is respect for the producers’ opinions. We know this from our own producer surveys. These surveys show a growing percentage of farmers who are not supportive of the single desk, and the biggest group that expresses that opinion is farmers under 45 years of age.
We’ve seen in all the producer surveys done since 1998 that there is not majority support for marketing barley under the single desk, yet what have we done? At the majority at these meetings, in all due respect, were well-seasoned farmers, many who even stated that they were retired, yet support the CWB monopoly and don’t want to see any changes.
Respecting all producers’ opinions is important, but the CWB is a business, and one that must focus on what farmers need to make their business successful. Only individual farmers can decide what is best for their business. I cannot and will not tell my neighbours how to manage their farm, and what to do with their wheat and barley, and no one should feel they have the right to tell me what to do with my grain on my farm. Democracies don’t work that way.
Jeff Nielsen
Olds
CWB Director, District 2