To the editor, A response to the CWB “open letter†of Dec. 5, 2014.
Following the farmer-controlled Canadian Wheat Board’s evisceration in 2011, which included the firing of the farmer-elected Directors and the confiscation of the farmer-paid assets, everyone still working at the now government-run CWB was left serving at the pleasure of the Minister. It is not surprising, then, to find the current CWB staff working on damage control for the government. Their only alternative would be to look for other employment.
In the CWB’s letter the statement is made “As everyone knows other grain companies are not required to release any confidential commercial information that would disadvantage their operations†in order to deflect attention away from the government’s refusal to publish an audited financial statement for 2012/13. First of all, if the company is a shareholder company like Archer-Daniels-Midland they do have to publish lots of financial information, including what their Directors are paying themselves.
More importantly however, is that the CWB is not just another grain company—it is a grain company that has its operations, farmer payments, and borrowings guaranteed by the Canadian taxpayers. No other grain company operation in Canada creates this kind of taxpayer liability.
As well, the government is fond of saying that it has recently transferred over $300 million of taxpayer money into the CWB since the fall of 2011. A CWB with government guarantees and the government’s cash injections has a responsibility to be accountable to taxpayers.
It is also worth noting that the voluntary wheat board of the 1930’s published audited financial statements, even though they were competing with the rest of the grain trade. Nothing now is more commercially sensitive than it was in 1935.
Let’s not kid ourselves, the rest of the grain trade knows how much grain the CWB is or is not handling. If Minister Ritz’s CWB had handled the volumes that indicated a “strong and viable†marketer the government would be shouting those numbers from the rooftops instead of covering-up and suppressing important financial information.
In 2011 the Harper government endlessly repeated the argument that the government-controlled CWB-- stripped of its single desk marketing advantages—would be strong and viable. Minister Ritz claimed that all the CWB needed to keep was the rolodex of buyers’ phone numbers because other grain companies would sign contracts to handle CWB-sourced grain. Any business-minded person listening at the time knew what a fairytale that was. How many tonnes did the CWB source for other grain companies to move in 2012/13? The Minister refuses to say.
Now, however, “strong and viable†is simply code for “We [the government] can’t sell the farmer-paid assets that we have confiscated in order to even reimburse taxpayers for the new costs created in 2011. No, we have to leave those hundreds of millions of dollars in the CWB, AND we have to find more hundreds of millions of dollars just to keep the company running past the next election cycle.â€
So adding up the taxpayer liability of over $300 million created by the government in 2011, and then having the government walk away from well over $200 million of farmer-paid assets means that Canadian taxpayers are out over half a billion dollars. How many veteran offices would half a billion dollars keep open?
Lacking the nerve to mention the Farmers of North America (FNA) by name, the CWB open letter says that the CWB used some vague criteria to evaluate bids. Odd then that the first negative reports about the FNA proposal came from the Minister and not the CWB.
It is important to understand that the Harper government’s record shows it will never, ever, let Canadian farmers be in control of the CWB assets ever again. They just don’t trust farmers. Sure, farmers could be issued some kind of minority equity position, but never actual control. Apparently Mr. Ritz was just lying to Parliament and farmers when he was speaking in support of his Bill killing the farmer-controlled Wheat Board on Nov. 2, 2011: [from Hansard]: Ritz: “…Yes, they will elect their own board. After the interim period, where we control it as a government, yes, they will elect their own board should they decide to do that….absolutely farmers will run it…They may not incorporate, they may do a cooperative, they may do a not-for-profit…â€.
Now the government/CWB line is “we will give away the farmer-paid assets to some existing grain company with “industry expertise and capitalâ€â€.
With the broad realization that this is not a business deal, but rather a political maneuver—with the government saying to a company “if you just pretend to keep this charade going past the next election we will give you hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of farmer-paid assetsâ€â€”farmers and taxpayers are starting to understand how they have been misled, and thus the need for the open damage-control letter.
When it comes to creating a human CWB shield for the Minister, the CWB open letter has to be classified as an “epic failâ€.
Yours truly,
Stewart Wells
Chair, Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board
Swift Current, Sask.
306-773-6852
Following the farmer-controlled Canadian Wheat Board’s evisceration in 2011, which included the firing of the farmer-elected Directors and the confiscation of the farmer-paid assets, everyone still working at the now government-run CWB was left serving at the pleasure of the Minister. It is not surprising, then, to find the current CWB staff working on damage control for the government. Their only alternative would be to look for other employment.
In the CWB’s letter the statement is made “As everyone knows other grain companies are not required to release any confidential commercial information that would disadvantage their operations†in order to deflect attention away from the government’s refusal to publish an audited financial statement for 2012/13. First of all, if the company is a shareholder company like Archer-Daniels-Midland they do have to publish lots of financial information, including what their Directors are paying themselves.
More importantly however, is that the CWB is not just another grain company—it is a grain company that has its operations, farmer payments, and borrowings guaranteed by the Canadian taxpayers. No other grain company operation in Canada creates this kind of taxpayer liability.
As well, the government is fond of saying that it has recently transferred over $300 million of taxpayer money into the CWB since the fall of 2011. A CWB with government guarantees and the government’s cash injections has a responsibility to be accountable to taxpayers.
It is also worth noting that the voluntary wheat board of the 1930’s published audited financial statements, even though they were competing with the rest of the grain trade. Nothing now is more commercially sensitive than it was in 1935.
Let’s not kid ourselves, the rest of the grain trade knows how much grain the CWB is or is not handling. If Minister Ritz’s CWB had handled the volumes that indicated a “strong and viable†marketer the government would be shouting those numbers from the rooftops instead of covering-up and suppressing important financial information.
In 2011 the Harper government endlessly repeated the argument that the government-controlled CWB-- stripped of its single desk marketing advantages—would be strong and viable. Minister Ritz claimed that all the CWB needed to keep was the rolodex of buyers’ phone numbers because other grain companies would sign contracts to handle CWB-sourced grain. Any business-minded person listening at the time knew what a fairytale that was. How many tonnes did the CWB source for other grain companies to move in 2012/13? The Minister refuses to say.
Now, however, “strong and viable†is simply code for “We [the government] can’t sell the farmer-paid assets that we have confiscated in order to even reimburse taxpayers for the new costs created in 2011. No, we have to leave those hundreds of millions of dollars in the CWB, AND we have to find more hundreds of millions of dollars just to keep the company running past the next election cycle.â€
So adding up the taxpayer liability of over $300 million created by the government in 2011, and then having the government walk away from well over $200 million of farmer-paid assets means that Canadian taxpayers are out over half a billion dollars. How many veteran offices would half a billion dollars keep open?
Lacking the nerve to mention the Farmers of North America (FNA) by name, the CWB open letter says that the CWB used some vague criteria to evaluate bids. Odd then that the first negative reports about the FNA proposal came from the Minister and not the CWB.
It is important to understand that the Harper government’s record shows it will never, ever, let Canadian farmers be in control of the CWB assets ever again. They just don’t trust farmers. Sure, farmers could be issued some kind of minority equity position, but never actual control. Apparently Mr. Ritz was just lying to Parliament and farmers when he was speaking in support of his Bill killing the farmer-controlled Wheat Board on Nov. 2, 2011: [from Hansard]: Ritz: “…Yes, they will elect their own board. After the interim period, where we control it as a government, yes, they will elect their own board should they decide to do that….absolutely farmers will run it…They may not incorporate, they may do a cooperative, they may do a not-for-profit…â€.
Now the government/CWB line is “we will give away the farmer-paid assets to some existing grain company with “industry expertise and capitalâ€â€.
With the broad realization that this is not a business deal, but rather a political maneuver—with the government saying to a company “if you just pretend to keep this charade going past the next election we will give you hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of farmer-paid assetsâ€â€”farmers and taxpayers are starting to understand how they have been misled, and thus the need for the open damage-control letter.
When it comes to creating a human CWB shield for the Minister, the CWB open letter has to be classified as an “epic failâ€.
Yours truly,
Stewart Wells
Chair, Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board
Swift Current, Sask.
306-773-6852
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