Legislation coming to allow open sales of western barley: minister
By John Ward, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says he wants to introduce legislation within three weeks to allow western barley producers to bypass the Canadian Wheat Board when selling their crops.
Following a meeting with producer and industry representatives Tuesday, Ritz said he'll go ahead with or without the wheat board's OK.
He said he wants the board's directors to find a way to approve the idea during their own meetings in Winnipeg later this week.
Although Ritz said he was optimistic the board would come around, Greg Arason, the president of the marketing agency, was cautious.
"That's a decision for our board to make and until we have that discussion at the board table there's really nothing much that I can say, other than that we've given him our assurance that we will look at all of the alternatives," Arason said.
Arason has himself supported the idea of ending the board's monopoly on barley sales.
Ritz admitted that having the board onside would make it easier for the minority government get the bill through Parliament.
"It would certainly take the opposition parties' stinger away if the board recommends this as the right way to move forward with producers's best interests in mind," he said.
"I would be loath as a politician to stand in the way of the farm gate getting ahead with an election coming."
But he said the government will act in any case.
"We've been pushing the rock uphill for years and we're not afraid to go it alone," he said.
He said he wants to get the marketing rules changed before farmers make their final decisions on planting this spring. Uncertainty had already induced farmers to cut back on the barley acreage farmers planned to seed and drawing things out could mean even less seeding.
The issue of letting western farmers sell through the board or privately has split the ranks of producers in the last year. Some see it as a simple matter of choice, others view it as an attempt to dismantle their cherished wheat board.
"Marketing choice or a dual market is there, really, to end the wheat board," Butch Harder, a farmer from Manitoba's Red River valley, told a news conference Tuesday.
Harder said it's part of a Tory campaign to get rid of not only the wheat board, but other marketing boards, medicare and the CBC.
Ritz laughed that off.
"Same old, same old," he said.
"We want farmers to have the freedom to make their own barley marketing choices in western Canada as they do in the rest of Canada."
Arason said stripping the board of its barley monopoly would hardly be fatal to the institution.
"We're talking about barley here," he said. "Barley is an important crop for us, but it's certainly not the biggest piece of our business."
Harder and other opponents say a majority of producers support the wheat board monopoly, although a controversial, government-sponsored plebiscite last year seemed to support the optional-marketing plan.
They say the vote was a rigged election worthy of a "banana republic." Ritz said it expressed a majority view that favoured allowing the option of private sales.
He said his meeting Tuesday reflected that.
"We had a wide cross section of the industry right through the value chain from growers to grain handlers and markets to processors."
Harder and company say the meeting excluded their allies and was packed with wheat board opponents.
"Except for two CWB officials, everyone invited to this meeting represents farm and business organizations that are intent on dismantling my marketing agency and have openly said so."
Ken Sigurdson, a Saskatchewan farmer, echoed Harder:
"That meeting has excluded the major farm groups in this country and is only composed of Canadian Wheat Board haters and long-term haters of the wheat board and grain company officials and we say that's unfair."
By John Ward, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says he wants to introduce legislation within three weeks to allow western barley producers to bypass the Canadian Wheat Board when selling their crops.
Following a meeting with producer and industry representatives Tuesday, Ritz said he'll go ahead with or without the wheat board's OK.
He said he wants the board's directors to find a way to approve the idea during their own meetings in Winnipeg later this week.
Although Ritz said he was optimistic the board would come around, Greg Arason, the president of the marketing agency, was cautious.
"That's a decision for our board to make and until we have that discussion at the board table there's really nothing much that I can say, other than that we've given him our assurance that we will look at all of the alternatives," Arason said.
Arason has himself supported the idea of ending the board's monopoly on barley sales.
Ritz admitted that having the board onside would make it easier for the minority government get the bill through Parliament.
"It would certainly take the opposition parties' stinger away if the board recommends this as the right way to move forward with producers's best interests in mind," he said.
"I would be loath as a politician to stand in the way of the farm gate getting ahead with an election coming."
But he said the government will act in any case.
"We've been pushing the rock uphill for years and we're not afraid to go it alone," he said.
He said he wants to get the marketing rules changed before farmers make their final decisions on planting this spring. Uncertainty had already induced farmers to cut back on the barley acreage farmers planned to seed and drawing things out could mean even less seeding.
The issue of letting western farmers sell through the board or privately has split the ranks of producers in the last year. Some see it as a simple matter of choice, others view it as an attempt to dismantle their cherished wheat board.
"Marketing choice or a dual market is there, really, to end the wheat board," Butch Harder, a farmer from Manitoba's Red River valley, told a news conference Tuesday.
Harder said it's part of a Tory campaign to get rid of not only the wheat board, but other marketing boards, medicare and the CBC.
Ritz laughed that off.
"Same old, same old," he said.
"We want farmers to have the freedom to make their own barley marketing choices in western Canada as they do in the rest of Canada."
Arason said stripping the board of its barley monopoly would hardly be fatal to the institution.
"We're talking about barley here," he said. "Barley is an important crop for us, but it's certainly not the biggest piece of our business."
Harder and other opponents say a majority of producers support the wheat board monopoly, although a controversial, government-sponsored plebiscite last year seemed to support the optional-marketing plan.
They say the vote was a rigged election worthy of a "banana republic." Ritz said it expressed a majority view that favoured allowing the option of private sales.
He said his meeting Tuesday reflected that.
"We had a wide cross section of the industry right through the value chain from growers to grain handlers and markets to processors."
Harder and company say the meeting excluded their allies and was packed with wheat board opponents.
"Except for two CWB officials, everyone invited to this meeting represents farm and business organizations that are intent on dismantling my marketing agency and have openly said so."
Ken Sigurdson, a Saskatchewan farmer, echoed Harder:
"That meeting has excluded the major farm groups in this country and is only composed of Canadian Wheat Board haters and long-term haters of the wheat board and grain company officials and we say that's unfair."
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