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Red Deer MP denies conflict of interest on Canadian Wheat Board vote

Red Deer MP Earl Dreeshen says he’s only doing the job he was elected to do and isn’t in a conflict of interest on the Canadian Wheat Board.
RD-CONSERVATIVE-Dreeshen-Earl
Earl Dreeshen

Red Deer MP Earl Dreeshen says he’s only doing the job he was elected to do and isn’t in a conflict of interest on the Canadian Wheat Board.

Dreeshen is one of at least seven Tory MPs identified this week by the NDP, which contends they are in a conflict of interest on the wheat board because they, their spouses or their offspring have stakes in grain farms or income from operations.

Dreeshen contends he represents the majority views of his Central Alberta constituents and will vote again on the issue when it returns to the Commons for second and final readings.

The federal ethics commissioner ruled Wednesday that MPs are not in conflict of interest when they vote on the issue which was raised by the NDP on Monday.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t representing groups like the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce and farmers who have come out in support of marketing freedom,” Dreeshen said this week.

The Conservatives are using their majority government to scrap the wartime-era monopoly that Ottawa granted the wheat board over Western wheat and barley sales.

The change will grant Western Canadian farmers, from B.C.’s Peace River district to eastern Manitoba, the freedom as of August 2012 to sell their wheat and barley to whomever they choose. In most cases, the buyers are expected to be big agricultural firms such as Cargill.

Dreeshen said farmers who don’t want to try the open market are still free to use a “pooled program” to sell their grain.

He also says MPs who are farmers or come from farming backgrounds have a keener insight into the problem.

Crowfoot MP Kevin Sorenson is also one of the MPs singled out by the NDP.

Dreeshen said the NDP knows there’s a deadline for the legislation to be passed by the end of this year.

He said contracts have to be arranged by then for sales next year.

The bill is now before the agriculture committee for review. Because Conservative MPs hold the majority on that committee, no significant delays are expected before the legislation is sent back to the House for a final vote.

It then heads to the Senate for more debate and a vote before becoming legislation.

The Conservatives hope the legislation can clear the Senate and become law before the end of 2011, allowing farmers and other businesses involved in the Prairie grain industry to prepare for selling the 2012 wheat and barley crops on the open market, Dreeshen said.

The measure is divisive. A wheat board plebiscite recently showed 62 per cent of wheat farmers voted to stick with single desk monopoly sales, as did 51 per cent of barley producers.

The Conservatives plan to have some remaining wheat board members tasked with developing a viable plan for the wheat board to continue to function as a voluntary grain pool.

jwilson@www.reddeeradvocate.com