Opinion

Harper's Hit on Grain Farmers

Tories will aid US firms by gutting Canadian Wheat Board.

By Albert Horner and David Orchard, 23 Apr 2007, TheTyee.ca

ChuckStrahl in Parlaiment

Ag Minister Chuck Strahl.

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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:

[Tyee]

Albert Horner is a retired grain producer and livestock breeder. A four-term Progressive Conservative MP under John Diefenbaker, he lives in Blaine Lake, S.K. David Orchard was a candidate for the Progressive Conservative party leadership in 1998 and 2003. Author of The Fight for Canada: Four Centuries of Resistance to American Expansionism, he farms at Borden, S.K. E-mail: davidorchard@sasktel.net

28 Comments:

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  • zalm

    5 years ago

    After you elect the Conservaformers...

    ...drop your drawers and bend over.

    It's very strange how this Conservative government is out to banish all thoughts of individual initiative for the benefit of a few large corporations.

    It may look like farmers are being given individual initiative, but when the market they sell into is comprised of 5 major corporations only, which act like an oligopoly rather than a free market, and when there is only one major transportation system, (especially now that BC Rail has been given away) further denying choice to farmers, there is certainly no free market for farmers without the board, unless you are a mega-agribusiness-corp living on the US border with access to two or more separate rail systems on your property.

    Despite shortages of food in the world, oats, which were taken out of the CWB last harvest year (2005), achieved their lowest paid price ever, for the simple reasons that individual farmers were unable to sell or deliver their product into the market that could pay the most for it. They had to sell into one of the majors, that was offering prices not seen since the Depression. And they're not the only products treated this way.

    Large corporations are inherently inefficient, and can only compete by restricting factors to competition, such as supply, transportation, or subduing demand. Abolish the CWB, and you give the grain corporations free reign to abuse Canadian farmers with every sort of trick developed by predatory business of the past thousand years.

    "Oh dear. I know you just sold your corn for a great price, but we can't seem to find any rail cars to get it to your destination. Too bad it's going to just sit there on your farm and rot through Christmas."

    "I know that oats are selling for $600/tonne in Britain, but if you want us to get that price for your small quantity of oats, you're going to have to pay us a $300/tonne finders fee."

    "Oh, you mean your wheat is not the BT-resistant wheat from Monsanto? Well, our trade agreements in the US don't allow us to market your wheat internationally in any country where Monsanto has a patent."

    All these are hypothetical. But which one is far-fetched? If any?

    And if you're an independent farmer, don't expect NAFTA to help you. They couldn't help big lumber companies without it costing an arm and a leg and 15 years in the courts. What hope does the little guy have?

    Chuck Strahl is selling us all down the river. If it happens, don't expect your Corn Flakes to go down in price. It hasn't happened in the US or Britain, and it won't happen here.

  • The brain

    5 years ago

    Its a U.S. selloff all the way

    There is no other way of looking at it, really. Republican and National Citizen Coalition backed Stephen Harper is doing the best he can with a minority government to sell the country out.Canada simply has no private or Canadian controlled public grain handling companies to take over the monopoly the CWB has. Getting rid of the CWB would hand this countries grain handling over to the U.S. corps on a silver platter.

    Harper was prez of
    www.morefreedom.org
    a website for the National Citizen's coalition for 5 years before being elected (some say stole) leadership of the Conservative party. Harper's ties to the whims of U.S. born CEO will is best found here. The organization is a group of large U.S. born multinational oil, insurance corps, grainhandling corps, HMO's and U.S. banks that want to own and control more and more of Canada's business sectors... and Harper is their puppet.

    There is not one shred of benefit to Canada or its farmers in getting rid of the CWB. He's giving away a large Canadian industry over to U.S. corps overnight. Harper's nothing more than a U.S. sellout and its hard to live in a country with a large minority of people who aren't catching on.

  • biscotti

    5 years ago

    Who to write

    The Hon. Chuck Strahl
    Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board
    Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
    House of Commons
    Ottawa, Ontario
    K1A 0A6

    cc: Alex Atamanenko, MP
    Wayne Easter, MP
    Bellavance, André, MP

    ...no stamps necessary ;-)

  • Frank

    5 years ago

    Farmers

    Since the prairies federally are pretty much owned by the Conservatives and its in the rural areas where the provincial support for conservatives is also, why worry about it? Its not like there could still be any farmers out there that haven't heard about is there?

    Right-wing farmers not blocking their own gov't from carrying out a policy that hurts them the most is actually kind of delicious.

    Being as they're the backbone of his political strength, to stop Harper all the prairies would have to do is not vote for him. If they vote for him anyway because they hate the idea of two guys in Vancouver getting married more than they worry about losing the CWB then don't they kinda deserve to reap what they sow?

  • alive

    5 years ago

    USA bound

    Seem to me that we are becoming parts of the USA, like it or not; without obtaining any of the benefits of being part of the USA.
    Good going Harpo, between you and Gordo we need not worry about the possibility that Quebec may seperate, because there will be no Canada to seperate from!

  • clo3

    5 years ago

    Let farmers have the choice

    While I definitely would like this decision to be given due process (such as an anonymous vote with a clear question and even a debate in Parliament), I don’t understand how it will shut the Wheat Board down to revoke its monopoly. Any private companies that want to compete with the CWB would have to pay the same price or better in order to get farmers to sell to them. If private companies don’t pay what the CWB pays, then all farmers will probably continue using the CWB anyway.

    Besides, if a most farmers like the CWB, as many claim, then there is nothing to worry about because they would still be free to sell their product to the CWB instead of any other company that operates in Canada.

    I also don’t think this policy has anything to do an agenda on Harper’s part to sell out to the Americans. There are many policies that the Harper government is doing to assert our sovereignty and ensure our future, such as rebuilding our armed forces and asserting control over the Northwest Passage. If he is truly an American lapdog, why would he want to control the US’s use of the Arctic?

  • Fiat lux

    5 years ago

    If grain farmers have any

    If grain farmers have any brains left, they should loook at what's happening to the beef industry, where a handful of multinational feedlots control what ranchers get and the same corporate mafia, also controls the exorbinant prices and profits people pay for the adulterated, chemically filled garbage they pay at the supermarkets.

    The stated, main purpose of all this is the destruction of the family farm system and its collectivization into Soviet style, agribiz kolkhozes.

    This is what's today called "free enterprise"

    Ed Deak.

  • The brain

    5 years ago

    Slagging farmers?

    I agree, there are some confused farmers out there, and a good chunk of them are as apathetic in believing their voice counts as the rest, as are some commentors on the tyee. But make no mistake. Most farmers are not that "confused" when it comes to their income.

    Being a son of a current western grain farmer its not hard to observe that farmers do want a say as to who they sell their grain to. Like any other business man, farmers want to sell their crops to those who will pay the most for them. The way it stands now, all grain grown in western Canada (not down east and that question should be asked, why is it not that way down east) must be sold to the wheatboard, or you can't move it.

    So I ask you, gentlemen, would you, selling furniture or anything else for that matter, want to be in a situation where you have only one customer and that customer dictates what you get paid for you're goods? Cause that's been the reality of western grain farmers for the last 50 years.

    Ideologically, the best of both worlds for farmers is to have full flexibility in terms of who they can sell their grain to, while keeping the CWB intact as clo3 has noted to compete with private corps. Unfortunately, farmers can't have it both ways or best of both worlds and the reason is mainly that the reduction of CWB power weakens the CWB's ability to get good prices in foreign and domestic markets.

    And who does the CWB compete with outside of other world grain exporters? U.S. corporate monopolies. Who wants the CWB gone? U.S. corportate monopolies. Who else wants the CWB gone? Stephen Harper. Go figure. Harper is all about larger U.S. market share of any sectors they are already in, and to open up sectors that the U.S. currently is shut out on. Slag farmers? Wake up, folks!!! Its not just one sector, here. Its all of them!!! Insurance, banking, medicare, softwood, why grain is just a part of it!

    Farmers are hooped either way in a sense that they will have to sell their grain to a monopoly whether they like it or not. But if the CWB comes to an end that is purely nothing more than political driven... it will be monopolies regardless only this time, its U.S. grain handlers.

    And history, folks, does repeat itself. What happened the last time the U.S. screwed us and their economic models didn't work? Tommy Douglas happened. The NDP happened. But some things are different. Rural populations have shrunken sadly and with it, so is a farmers voice of distain against monopolies and U.S. corporate control in general.

    Farmers elected the boards directors and CEO which the Conservatives fired and appointed. All in all, one thing is crystal clear. The end of the CWB is political and all about U.S. market share expansion into Canada under Harper and if voters started thinking nationally instead of themselves, the choice would be much easier to make on election day.

  • mcdull

    5 years ago

    How dare you guys pick on

    How dare you guys pick on Harper and his agenda. When if you you listen to NW and the Grate Addled one he is the best thing to happen to Canada. Just like all lefties are whacko and the only good people are in his words those of the Grate (yes grate as his voice gates on my ears so I turn him off as soon as I get near the radio)Addled Nation of fools.

  • gerrycgc

    5 years ago

    Wheat Board Vote

    Backgrounder
    March 2007

    Plebiscite Results
    The plebiscite on barley was designed as a broadly based consultation with farmers, giving them the opportunity to express their opinions on how they would like to market barley in the future.

    Farmers were asked to select one of the following three options on the ballot.

    The Canadian Wheat Board should retain the single desk for the marketing of barley into domestic human consumption and export markets.
    I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any other domestic or foreign buyer.
    The Canadian Wheat Board should not have a role in the marketing of barley.
    The results, as attested by the international professional services firm KPMG:

    Barley Plebiscite Results

    MB SK AB BC Overall
    Total votes cast 3,703 15,327 9,881 156 29,067
    Percent of votes
    Retain single desk 50.6 45.1 21.4 42.3 37.8
    Prefer option to market to CWB or other buyer of my choice 34.6 42.1 63.4 49.4 48.4
    CWB should have no role in marketing barley 14.8 12.8 15.2 8.3 13.8

    The Government of Canada will now begin work on the necessary amendments to the Canadian Wheat Board regulations to remove barley from the CWB's single desk authority.

    It is the Government's intention that marketing choice for Western Canada's barley growers will be a reality by August 1, 2007.

  • RickW

    5 years ago

    So The Cons are Lib doppelgangers.....

    Dec. 13: Mr. Trudeau muses at a Liberal party dinner in Winnipeg: “Well, why should I sell the Canadian farmers' wheat?”http://www.theglobeandmail.com/series/trudeau/trudeau01.html#1969

  • RickW

    5 years ago

    Sorry!

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/series/trudeau/trudeau01.html#1969

  • IAMC

    5 years ago

    We pay twice as much

    These Dairy Boards, Wheat Boards, Egg Marketing Boards add 100% to your food bill, for these products, which include eggs, bread, cheese, pork, and all of those associated products, which includes pasta, that comes from wheat.
    This scheme is only helping an extremely small proportion of the Canadian population. Farmers, who are split on the logic of this socialistic approach.
    If we are going to face increased energy costs, due to a smelly KYOTO scam, then we need a break somewhere else.
    Let us enter the free market for our food stuffs.
    We don't deserve to be ripped off like this.

  • BitWhys

    5 years ago

    to all those brave entrepenuers

    good for you and good luck

    now find someone besides the Treasury Board to underwrite your contracts and get out of my pocketbook.

    and one other thing...

    If you have so much faith in the self-regulating market you don't need one thin dime out of me for the reorg. Find yourselves another angel. Forget about using tax money to set up a straw man to be sold off at fire sale prices later, using public funds to compete in the private sector is Fascism. We wouldn't want that, would we?

    have fun :o)

  • RickW

    5 years ago

    using public funds to compete in the private sector is Fascism

    No, no, no....it is called "free" enterprise (whereby business acquires assets for free)...........

    Besides, IAMC didn't provide one spot of proof about this 100% mark up, or where that cash goes, or what the baseline the markup is taken from...........in other words, a total and complete lack of credibility.

    BTW, just why does the consumer "need a break" from the cost of environmental reform anyway?

  • BitWhys

    5 years ago

    re: "No, no, no....it is called "free" enterprise"

    exactly

    now would be good. that way they get a few dozen computers, a couple workflows and a contact list.

    hell's bells give it away now (your first loss is your least) and let the oligarchs scrap over it. it'll be cheaper in the long run and probably worth the entertainment value alone.

  • Fii

    5 years ago

    Close enough

    Since this topic is somewhat related- my brother just informed me today of the (not so often seen in the mainstream news) "mysterious disappearance of bees" story.

    That can't be good for the food supply. What the heck??

  • G West

    5 years ago

    Here's part of the story Fii

    March 2, 2007 New York Times
    Losing Their Buzz
    By MAY R. BERENBAUM
    WHEN Hollywood filmmakers want to heighten the tension of an insect fear film, they just arrange for millions of killer bees to appear out of nowhere to threaten a vulnerable group of people -- over the years, these have included children in a school bus, celebrants at a Mardi Gras parade and people living near a nuclear power plant.

    But people from all demographic groups across the country are facing a much more frightening real-life situation: the disappearance of millions of bees. This winter, in more than 20 states, beekeepers have noticed that their honeybees have mysteriously vanished, leaving behind no clues as to their whereabouts. There are no tell-tale dead bodies either inside colonies or out in front of hives, where bees typically deposit corpses of dead nestmates.

    What's more, the afflicted colonies tend to be full of honey, pollen and larvae, as if all of the workers in the nest precipitously decamped on some prearranged signal. Beekeepers are up in arms -- last month, leaders in the business met with research scientists and government officials in Florida to figure out why the bees are disappearing and how to stop the losses. Nobody had any answers.

    That beekeepers are alarmed over this situation is understandable, but, just as in the movies, the public may not recognize the magnitude of the threat that these mysterious events present.

    A decline in the numbers of Apis melllifera, the world's most widely distributed semi-domesticated insect, doesn't just mean a shortage of honey for toast and tea. In fact, the economic value of honey, wax and other bee products is trivial in comparison with the honeybee's services as a pollinator. More than 90 crops in North America rely on honeybees to transport pollen from flower to flower, effecting fertilization and allowing production of fruit and seed. The amazing versatility of the species is worth an estimated $14 billion a year to the United States economy.

    Approximately one-third of the typical American's diet (primarily the healthiest part) is directly or indirectly the result of honey bee pollination. Production of almonds in California, a $2 billion enterprise, is almost entirely dependent on honey bees. Every year beekeepers transport millions of bees around the country to meet the ever-growing need for pollination services for almonds, apples, blueberries, peaches and other crops. This year it is possible that there won't be enough bees to meet the demand for pollinators.

    (snip)

  • BitWhys

    5 years ago

    Just so there's no doubt

    the new regulations have been announced...

    "The proposed amendments to the Regulations would continue to extend Part III to barley."

    http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partI/2007/20070421/html/regle1-e.html#i1

    Team that up with outstanding contracts and the private buyers are in the pink. Strahl is hooking a vacuum cleaner up to the public purse.

  • BitWhys

    5 years ago

    in the interests of accuracy

    proposed, that is

    proposed regulations

    as if another 30 days is going to change their minds. sorry for the flood.

  • RickW

    5 years ago

    Fii

    That can't be good for the food supply.

    What do bees have to do with food supply? Everyone knows food comes from Safeway......

  • BitWhys

    5 years ago

    none, really

    didn't your mother tell you about the cupboards and the bees?

  • Fii

    5 years ago

    Thanks

    Thanks for the NY Times story, G West. I'm going to follow this one more closely.

  • BC Dude

    5 years ago

    Rick W: Quote:What do bees

    Rick W:

    Quote:
    What do bees have to do with food supply? Everyone knows food comes from Safeway.....

    My God man are you really that thick?
    Do you have any idea how important the domestic honey Bee and all other insect pollinators are to the survival of almost all natural foods and maybe US?
    We or our farmers, ranchers, wheat board, egg board, etal need this protection from predator corporations.
    If Harper wants to get rid of them, WE should all be very concerned, as Harper does or has done nothing good for the People of Canada unless you count extending the occupation in a country far away 9/11 my butt!
    Harper is the backside of D Cheney/Bush and when they are impeached so Harper and his bigbucks daddy will all be infamis in all future history books.

  • BC Dude

    5 years ago

    What's happening to my text?

    What's happening to my text?

  • BC Dude

    5 years ago

    Throw the traitors out now!

    Throw the traitors out now! They are destroying all that makes CANADA a Sovereign Peace Keeping Nation along with Herr G Campbell and UnderHerr R Klien!
    How screwed up is this?
    Parliamentary immunity protects top Mountie from perjury, court hears. Parliamentary immunity = "Get Out of Prison Free"
    http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=0d5b064b-b195-4017-b48f-4526130cdf20
    But don't be a voice for OUR PLANET!
    http://sisis.nativeweb.org/sov/allnahan.html
    Betty Krawczyk
    http://bettysearlyedition.blogspot.com/2007/02/bettys-final-submissions-to-madam.html
    10 months in jail?
    A cop who was caught for Luring two young girls (12 and 15) for the purpose of supposedly taking pics, gets ONE DAY IN JAIL
    http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/04/24/afghan_torture_allegations_hit_canada_defense_ministry/

  • BC Dude

    5 years ago

    Harper is a thug, these

    Harper is a thug, these vermin who want to run “OUR WORLD” not theirs! I for one am trying to "BUY LOCAL and NOT BUY STUFF I/WE DON'T NEED"
    Where does it say except TV, news media advertisers buy cars, exercisers (how many of you have one now, as an expensive cloths rack?)
    Haven't you ever wondered why advertisers make US the Consumers look so uneducated, neanderthal, backwards, rushing to buy, what?
    Boxing day specials lasting 3-4 months, Easter rabbits just after Christmas and where in the Bible does a rabbit come from, eggs, commercialism?
    WE HAVE THE POWER IT IS US WHO CAN TAKE THESE GREEDY WARMONGERING FEW DOWN FINANCIALY IN MAY, JUST DON'T BUY IN BIG BOX CANCERIOUS COUMMUNITY BUSTERS http://www.cfr.org/publication/10104/2006_cfr_corporate_conference.html?breadcrumb=%2Fbios%2Fbio%3Fid%3D576

  • Jack's

    5 years ago

    Albertans with head in sand?

    The conservative stronghold is Alberta...
    and Harper comes from Alberta...
    Surely Albertans must be aware of this???

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