Latest CWB survey to cost $275,000.00 says Oberg...

[TOM4CWB]

Small majority of growers support Canadian Wheat Board, poll finds
By Mia Rabson, Winnipeg Free Press

OTTAWA — A small majority of prairie farmers support the Canadian Wheat Board's single-desk system for selling wheat and barley, but support has declined a little in the last year, a new survey for the CWB shows.


According to the CWB's 2011 producer survey, 59 per cent of prairie farmers support the monopoly requiring prairie wheat and barley farmers to market all grain for export or domestic consumption through the CWB. A year ago, support was 64 per cent. In 2009, it was 63 per cent and in 2008 it was 57 per cent.


The survey, released by the board Wednesday, comes as the agency begins mailing ballots to farmers in a plebiscite some hope will save the board from the federal government's legislative hammer.


Ballots will be mailed to more than 68,000 producers next week, asking them whether they support the monopoly. The CWB has hired the accounting firm MNP to oversee the vote. MNP also conducts director elections for the wheat board and in 2007 held another plebiscite on the wheat board's monopoly for the Manitoba government.


In that vote, 69.5 per cent of wheat farmers in Manitoba and 61.8 per cent of barley farmers wanted to keep the monopoly.


Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz will introduce a bill this fall to end the 70-year monopoly the Canadian Wheat Board has had over most wheat and barley sales in the prairie provinces.


Ritz says it doesn't matter to his government how many support the single-desk system — if any farmers want to sell their grain elsewhere, they should be allowed to do so.


"No expensive survey should ever trump the rights of those farmers who want to choose how they market their own grain."


However CWB chair Allen Oberg says it is "astonishing" Ritz doesn't actually care what most farmers are saying.


"We've pledged to respect the results whatever they may be," said Oberg. "I would hope the minister would do the same."


Oberg says the current legislation requires the government to let producers decide the fate of the monopoly system.


Active farmers who have sold wheat or barley through the CWB in the last five years are eligible to vote. Ballots are due back by Aug. 24 and results are expected around Sept. 10. That is before the House of Commons resumes after its summer break and therefore before Ritz can introduce the legislation.


The Manitoba government is also lobbying against the bill with an advertising campaign. The province and the CWB are also circulating a petition hoping to pressure the government to at least let producers decide the monopoly's fate.


Richard Phillips, executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada, said the province and the CWB would be better to spend their money on studies and economic-impact plans for the CWB and the port of Churchill once the monopoly is gone. Phillips said since Ritz has indicated this plebiscite will have no impact, it's a waste of time and money.


"If they'd spend money on that it would lay out a business case for the future," said Phillips.


He said the CWB could potentially find new business marketing other crops and the port could look to other crops for shipping through Churchill as well.


"If they want to keep jobs in Winnipeg that's what they have to do," he said.


Oberg said the plebiscite will cost about $275,000, the same as it costs to hold director elections.


The CWB survey was conducted of 900 producers in the three prairie provinces. It is considered accurate within 3.24 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Small majority growers support Canadian Wheat Board poll finds/5062166/story.html
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca


Read more: http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/world/Small majority growers support Canadian Wheat Board poll finds/5062166/story.html#ixzz1RYJwBizr

[TOM4CWB]

John,

Oberg should know... Directors Elections each time... are only for half of the CWB Jurisdiction.

Qualifications...

You are eligible to vote if you:
1.Produced, or were entitled to a share of (as an interested party), either wheat or barley in any of the 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 crop years, and
2.Attained the age of 18 years as of August 24, 2011. If an individual is under 18 years of age they may designate someone else named in the permit book to vote on their behalf.

[TOM4CWB]

Ottawa asked to leave wheat board alone

Mia Rabson, Winnipeg Free Press: Tuesday, June 21, 2011

OTTAWA - The mayor of Churchill, Man., pleaded with the federal government Tuesday to give some thought to the effect eliminating the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly will have on his town.

Mike Spence, participating by telephone in an NDP press conference on Parliament Hill, said 200 jobs are at stake in Churchill if the grain marketing corporation shuts down or shrinks in size once Prairie farmers no longer have to sell their barley and wheat through it.

More than 90 per cent of the shipments through the port are from the CWB. A reduction or elimination of that business could devastate Churchill, said Spence.

``I just hope the federal government would take some time to digest how we can be affected.''

He said he'd like to see Ottawa fund an economic impact study before introducing legislation to open up grain marketing in Western Canada.

Opposition politicians have been calling on Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz since Parliament resumed June 2 to produce any such studies his government has done on the subject. Last week, Ritz's spokeswoman told the Winnipeg Free Press a number of reports have been done privately over the years analyzing the option of an open-market system.

``Furthermore, Minister Ritz has asked departmental officials to meet with industry and stakeholders, including the CWB, throughout the summer in order to assist in developing a transitional plan for opening the market and to help the CWB, should they choose, to become a voluntary marketing entity,'' Meagan Murdoch wrote in an email.

The current president of the CWB recently said voluntary marketing corporations in Australia and Ontario did not do well.

Manitoba NDP MPs Niki Ashton and Pat Martin said the CWB closing would have a negative impact on Manitoba - affecting everything from the rail line to Churchill and the port itself, to the 400 employees at CWB headquarters in Winnipeg.

Martin said he would expect major grain companies such as Cargill would have no reason to maintain their headquarters in Winnipeg, and that even the Canadian Grain Commission's future could be threatened.

Martin said it means Winnipeg will lose its position as world leaders in the grain industry and research.

The provincial government recently launched an advertising campaign to save the CWB, something Martin said the province had to do because the federal government has gagged the CWB itself from saying anything.

Winnipeg Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux said he's pulling together a petition to urge Ottawa to think more about what it will do to the Manitoba economy to end the monopoly.

``There's absolutely no way of stopping this unless farmers take action,'' said Lamoureux.

The Liberals and the NDP also are demanding Ritz hold a vote among farmers to decide the monopoly question, which they say is required by the current legislation.

In a statement Tuesday, Ritz said it doesn't matter how many farmers want to use the CWB to market their grain; those that don't want to use it shouldn't be forced to do so.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca



© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

[Braveheart]

Tom, people like Allen Oberg see leadership as a position. Leadership is really a choice.

[bucket]

Did anyone give a shit about the tens of thousands of farmers that left or were forced to leave because of shitty grain prices offered by the cwb?

If churchill is so efficient, it will survive. To throw your hands up and say we are out of business doesn't exactly promote a positive attitude. And who will do business with dumb dumbs like that.

[bucket]

Leadership comes with a vision, and Oberg lacks that quality.

Do the honourable thing Mr. Oberg - RESIGN. Let someone with a positive attitude fix this thing.

The grain companies are not going to give you much more time. And neither are farmers when they are looking toward next year and trying to figure out who to do business with.

[FarmRanger]

<i> "If churchill is so efficient, it will survive."</i>
A flipside question might be: if they are so
inefficient, why have we been forced to support
them for so long?

Just another extra deduction from your final
payment.

[BTOfarmallll]

With Global Warming Coming & All, The Port of Churchill's Future hasn't ever looked Brighter!!!!! Will turn into Thee Port of Choice once the Trans Texas Corridor is completed.........

[TOM4CWB]

BTO,

How true!

Why not have the CWB buy the Churchill port (for a song)... since they are the only ones to use it!!!

[Braveheart]

I'm sure if its future was really bright Mission Terminals would have scooped it up by now.

[Braveheart]

All the crying about jobs in Winnipeg leads me to wonder what happened when the wheat board was forced on the industry (without a farmer vote) in 1943. Did journalists and opposition MPs bemoan the loss of the private grain trade? Did the Province of Manitoba cry out over the loss of jobs at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange? How many private firms just closed their doors almost overnight?

[bucket]

Braveheart

Mission terminals is the cwb aka adrian measner. A fine secret experiment the cwb tried without anyone taking notice. Volume up 600 percent at mission, a smaller crop in 2010 and yet every ****ing elevator is still plugged. Most of the elevators on the prairies should be sweeping out board grains with a 100 percent call in place since march.

The grain companies should be waiting for harvest and instead they extend the crop year to the end of august.

All this crap about a plebiscite probably means they are hiding something somewhere. Its a diversionary tactic.

It won't be known for a couple of months, maybe after the results of the vote but the cwb ****ed up again this year and cost prairie farmers probably a billion.

[blackpowder]

'Politics' is involved in all human relations. In commercial business it involves many things including profit.
In state owned agencies 'politics' is for survival only.
The study of history affected by politicians whose ideal was survival is dreary ( see Baldwin and Chamberlain).
The same study involving those whose ideal was to do the morally right is interesting (see Churchill)
You can bet there's been a lot of ass grabbing in Winnipeg over the years. ( re: Port of Churchill)
The difference between the action in Winnipeg and Chicago is, in Winnipeg it's taxpayer funded, civil mandarin shoveled, and lawfully kept in the dark.

[Braveheart]

Yes Bucket, I knew about Adrian and Mission Terminals/Upper Lakes Grain Group. I think the way the board and Mission are in bed together would make Jimmy Hoffa envious.

I'm sure you're right about the Billion the board will have cost us this year. The paper shredders better be greased up. They're going to be busy.