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Article: Canadian Wheat Board is Everyone's Concern
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Canadian Wheat Board is Everyone's Concern - Jon Radojkovic
There is unfair federal government interference in the Canadian Wheat Board, according to former president and CEO Adrian Measner, and even local farmers in Grey and Bruce should be wary of their own programs.
"I came away with more fear but luckily it ended on a positive note," said Simon DeBoer, president of the local Christian Farmers of Ontario.
Measner came to an Elmwood public meeting to hear him, along with board member of the CWB, Karl Korneychuck, to tell local farmers of the CWB's fight over its existence with the ruling federal Conservative Party.
All the events leading up to the federal government's initiatives to disband the western farmers' control over the CWB and open it up to market forces began once the Harper government was elected last year, according to Measner. "They had an agenda before they were elected," he said. Prime Minister Steven Harper had been a strong critic of the CWB as a member of the National Citizen's Coalition, as well as the parliamentary assistant to agriculture David Anderson.
"If you think it's only a western Canadian problem then you're wrong," announced Korneychuck, who was invited as guest and not as a board member of the CWB. There is a government gag order about any of the 15 CWB board members speaking out in favour of single desk issues. "If the transnationals win in western Canada and the CWB is broken then supply management is next," concluded Korneychuck.
The Harper government would like to open up the CWB's farmer controlled single desk pooling of wheat and barley to market forces. What Measner and Korneychuck are saying is that that would lead to farmers having only minimum choices.
"If you think an individual farmer can get a better price selling wheat to one of four corporations with over $60 billion worth of business every year, who own 73 percent of global grain trade, then you're fooling yourself," Measner said.
DeBoer likened this to the demise of the Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board. What used to be a farmer controlled and operated pooled pork marketing board has fallen away now to open market forces. "Some guys thought they could get a better price individually," DeBoer says. The Tara area farmer, who used to be part of the OPPM, says large corporations, such as Maple Leaf and McCain now control the market. "We're certainly not better off now," he added.
Measner pointed out that the two organizations out west, which Harper and Minster of Agriculture Chuck Strahl often name as supporting open market options, are nothing but a sham. The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and Western Barley Growers Association, have about 400 and 100 members respectively. The farmer controlled Canadian Wheat Board has over 70,000 members. "Yet, the feds always point to these two groups as the voice of the farmers out here. This is not so," says Measner.
Some have compared Ontario's wheat marketing board, which sells as a pool, and the choice of also selling on the open market, as similar to what might happen out west.
"You can't compare our situation here with the one out west," said Bev Hill, who owns a small elevator and grows wheat and who's father, Gordon, was one of the founders of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. He pointed out that first the amount of wheat grown in Ontario is insignificant, compared to western amounts. Secondly, the proximity to big markets for Ontario growers makes a huge difference in distribution costs and marketing options. "We are a three hour truck ride for most of the domestic and export markets here," said Hill. Western growers ship hundreds of miles by rail car mostly, because trucking is too costly, to either the ports of Vancouver or Thunder Bay. There are no big American City buyers in the mid-west like Chicago near Ontario or Toronto or routes out of Canada like the St. Lawrence River.
"I would like to see this government operate on the principles of democracy and open and free society," Grant Robertson said, who is a national director on the National Farmers Union.
Measner explained how Strahl had tried to orchestrate the demise of the CWB. Beginning with a closed-door meeting last summer when only open market supporters were invited, such as the WCWPA and WBPA. Out of that meeting a task force was formed to talk about an open market system only, which the CWB declined to join. When Measner refused to take down from the CWB web site, an article supporting the CWB single desk selling, he was fired in December. Then the five appointed CWB board members were replaced with pro open market supporters. Even with allegations of vote rigging by the Conservative government, in a recent CWB election, eight of the ten board positions were elected to keep the CWB as it was, giving them a majority on the 15 board panel.
"I ran in a strong Conservative Party riding and won," said Korneychuck. "The vote was a strong message that farmers realize what's going on," he added.
At the end of the meeting in Elmwood last week, audience members, made up of farmers and farm leaders, came away on a positive note. After a unanimous vote all three local farm organizations - the CFFO NFUO and OFA - agreed to support the CWB in its fight to survive. "We as farmers need to stand together," said Robert Emerson, Bruce County OFA president.
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