By Randall Palmer and Rod Nickel
OTTAWA/WINNIPEG (Reuters) - The Canadian Parliament gave final
approval on Thursday to a government bill to end the Canadian Wheat
Board's 68-year-old grain marketing monopoly, but legal challenges
threaten to leave farmers and the grain industry in limbo into the New
Year.
The Senate easily passed the Conservative government's legislation to
end the CWB's monopoly on sales of western wheat and barley for export
or milling next August and allow farmers to sell those crops to whomever
they choose.
Later on Thursday, Canada's governor general gave the bill royal assent,
making it the law and setting the stage for the government to take control
of the board from farmers who oppose its plans.
The Wheat Board has already asked a Manitoba court to declare the
legislation invalid and will be in court on Friday morning to ask for
implementation of the law to be temporarily suspended until the court
decides whether to strike it down.
The board is seeking to build on a Federal Court decision last week that
declared that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz had breached existing law by
not consulting with the Wheat Board or holding a farmer vote before
introducing the legislation.
That Federal Court ruling did not kill the bill, but the Canadian Wheat
Board has now asked the Manitoba court to do so.
The CWB is under farmer control until the government takes over after the
bill becomes law, and has battled the Conservative government's plans at
every step along the way.
A ruling stopping implementation of the bill would interfere with Ottawa's
plans to immediately remove the board's eight farmer-elected directors,
conduct an audit of its finances and start downsizing the organization to
compete in an open market.
The bill would allow grain handlers, millers and farmers to sign forward
contracts for 2012 crops, but the legal uncertainty has left all three groups
hesitant to move.
Canada is the world's biggest exporter of spring wheat, durum and
malting barley, which fall mostly under the board's monopoly.
Western farmers are fiercely divided over whether to keep the monopoly,
although the Wheat Board's non-binding poll this summer showed most
farmers want to keep the system for wheat and a slight majority favor the
monopoly for barley.
The government has discredited that vote and the Wheat Board has
called for Ottawa to hold its own farmer plebiscite to settle the issue.
(Editing by Rob Wilson and Jim Marshall)
© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved.
OTTAWA/WINNIPEG (Reuters) - The Canadian Parliament gave final
approval on Thursday to a government bill to end the Canadian Wheat
Board's 68-year-old grain marketing monopoly, but legal challenges
threaten to leave farmers and the grain industry in limbo into the New
Year.
The Senate easily passed the Conservative government's legislation to
end the CWB's monopoly on sales of western wheat and barley for export
or milling next August and allow farmers to sell those crops to whomever
they choose.
Later on Thursday, Canada's governor general gave the bill royal assent,
making it the law and setting the stage for the government to take control
of the board from farmers who oppose its plans.
The Wheat Board has already asked a Manitoba court to declare the
legislation invalid and will be in court on Friday morning to ask for
implementation of the law to be temporarily suspended until the court
decides whether to strike it down.
The board is seeking to build on a Federal Court decision last week that
declared that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz had breached existing law by
not consulting with the Wheat Board or holding a farmer vote before
introducing the legislation.
That Federal Court ruling did not kill the bill, but the Canadian Wheat
Board has now asked the Manitoba court to do so.
The CWB is under farmer control until the government takes over after the
bill becomes law, and has battled the Conservative government's plans at
every step along the way.
A ruling stopping implementation of the bill would interfere with Ottawa's
plans to immediately remove the board's eight farmer-elected directors,
conduct an audit of its finances and start downsizing the organization to
compete in an open market.
The bill would allow grain handlers, millers and farmers to sign forward
contracts for 2012 crops, but the legal uncertainty has left all three groups
hesitant to move.
Canada is the world's biggest exporter of spring wheat, durum and
malting barley, which fall mostly under the board's monopoly.
Western farmers are fiercely divided over whether to keep the monopoly,
although the Wheat Board's non-binding poll this summer showed most
farmers want to keep the system for wheat and a slight majority favor the
monopoly for barley.
The government has discredited that vote and the Wheat Board has
called for Ottawa to hold its own farmer plebiscite to settle the issue.
(Editing by Rob Wilson and Jim Marshall)
© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved.
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