Why are Choice Directors Silent?

[AdamSmith]

Well, Bye George, I think Agstar's got it!

[parsley]

Winnipeg Free Press
Government., CWB to look at barley issues
Updated at 8:04 PM - Tuesday February 5, 2008

By Larry Kusch

Canadian Wheat Board chairman Ken Ritter said today that he will lead a delegation of CWB directors to meet with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in Ottawa on barley marketing next Tuesday.

Ritter, however, took issue with a press release issued by Ritz late yesterday that said the two sides would "explore opportunities to work together toward barley marketing freedom."

"We have indicated as a board of directors that we are willing to meet with the minister to look at some of the issues around barley and that's all," the CWB chief told the Free Press.

Wheat board officials met in Ottawa last week with Ritz and several industry representatives who share the government's goal of ending the CWB's barley marketing monopoly.

Ritz said at the time that he expected wheat board directors to come up with a "clear road map" on how to achieve marketing choice by the conclusion of their three-day meeting in Winnipeg last week.


Instead the directors simply agreed to sit down and talk with the government, Ritter said.

The CWB directors also decided to proceed with their CashPlus barley marketing proposal in the new crop year beginning Aug. 1.

Meanwhile, Ritter would not comment on the firing of wheat board vice-president Deanna Allen on Friday -- or the furore it has caused in the House of Commons.

"I just can't comment on an issue that's an employer-employee issue, and I'm just going to leave it at that," he said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca


Now there's a bright Board. Duh. Their Minister is their boss and gives them an order. And they sing,

"Sucking on my blankey, makes me feel secure"


Now there's a trained regiment for Afghanistan.

Parsley

[agstar77]

Now there's a commie pinko thought , the government running a marketing agency, Parsley , I thought you were more right wing.

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77,

And where would the 'single desk' be... without the GOC statutory authority?

You talk like the CWB is a commercial co. like Canadian Tire or Zellers!

[Raven]

Agstar, this is how Supreme Court Judge Rothstein sees what you want us to think is a 'marketing' agency:

"the Canadian Wheat Board can be characterized as a corporation with significant public aspects which involve the carrying out of government policy." and "The Board is to engage in the granting of export licences for the purposes of carrying out government policy"

[agstar77]

I believe you are talking about the old board setup before elected directors. The new set-up is supposed to be independent of the government thus more democratic as opposed to the commie pinko control idea . Of course some of you believe the government should have more control, how ironic.

[gregpet]

I would like to have more control over how I sell my grain.

Not the gov't.

NOT THE CWB!!!

Is that difficult to understand.

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77,

Check the date of the ruling... it is after 1998.

How can you make these statements... when without the CWB Act... and the force it authorises... the CWB would cease to exist.

You make no logical sense.

The CWB breaches the CWB Act... delays our legal actions to resolve the issues... and generally brings justice into disrepute.

You make very bold statements for being the topic of disdain at virtually every place I go... unsolicited.

And I suppose you will tell us the most recent CWB surveys show increasing support for the 'single desk'?

Be honest... what is the truth... Agstar77?

[charliep]

Board of director silence has been broken on one issue.

CWB directors opposed vice-president's firing
Wed Feb 6 2008

By Larry Kusch


BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Deanna Allen calls firing baseless.
MANITOBA'S two elected Canadian Wheat Board directors said Tuesday they opposed Deanna Allen's firing as CWB vice president at a board meeting last Friday.

Bill Nicholson of Shoal Lake and Bill Toews of Kane would not say how individual directors voted, but confirmed Allen's dismissal came as a result of a board vote.

"The board received a recommendation from interim CEO (Greg) Arason that Deanna Allen should be dismissed. I voted against that resolution," Nicholson said in an interview.

"I have the highest regard for Deanna and the work that she has done on behalf of farmers at the Canadian Wheat Board. And I opposed the decision and recorded my opposition."

Allen said Friday she was fired "without cause" by Arason, a Harper government appointee who succeeded Adrian Measner, who was sacked by Ottawa in December 2006.

Several board members interviewed Tuesday would not discuss the result of the vote in detail or say whether directors voted according to whether they supported the wheat board's continued monopoly on barley sales.

Because of her role as head of CWB communications, it was often left to Allen to respond to government as the grain sales agency clashed with Ottawa over its marketing role.

The wheat board's 15 directors -- five of whom are named by Ottawa -- are split on the barley marketing issue. In elections last year, Prairie growers elected eight known single desk supporters and two proponents of the open market.


Ottawa has named several new directors who are known to favour its position on marketing choice.

Toews said "there was never any question" that Allen reflected the majority view of the board when she spoke on the organization's behalf.

"It seemed to me that she was doing her job very well. She was extremely competent in what she did and worked very hard at doing the best job that she could," he said.

Directors on both sides of the barley marketing debate said Tuesday that Allen's firing does not mean a change has occurred in the power balance at the board between proponents and opponents of the single desk.

"I'd like to say that it has but truthfully I can't say that that's happened," said Henry Vos, a Fairview, Alta., farmer, who supports Ottawa's marketing choice policy. He refused to discuss Allen's dismissal.

Allen Oberg, a Forestburg, Alta., farmer director who supports the board's marketing monopoly, agreed that support for the CWB single desk has not dwindled among directors.

"It's just one issue where obviously there was a difference of opinion and the vote of the board did not go as I would have liked to have seen it," said Oberg, adding he was "distressed" at Allen's dismissal.

"I was a supporter of hers. (She did) a tremendous job in the communications role. She was outspoken, there was no doubt about that, but tremendously loyal to the organization."

Meanwhile, Blair Rutter, a spokesman for the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, said Tuesday that Ottawa has been unfairly blamed by opposition politicians for Allen's firing, and he called upon CWB chairman Ken Ritter to clear the air.

Reached on Tuesday, however, Ritter refused to discuss Allen's dismissal.


larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

[Raven]

Agstar, naughty! You're trying to con us farmers! 2001 direct quote from the CWB states:

"The CWB issues export licences on behalf of the federal government."

Written presentation to parliament Ag. committee about changes to Act electing directors by Howard Migie

"...the Canadian Government needs to have some involvement with respect to the management and direction of the Board. One is the control that the CWB has over export licences across Canada....The authority to control exports is clearly an important power that the CWB has and its not a power that the government normally delegates to private enterprises or to enterprises whose Board of Directors are controlled by the private sector."

Anyone wanting further proof that prairie farmers' elected directors are not the big bosses in control, should go read section 18.1 of the CWB Act. Agstar, if you are a director - read it every day.

(Incidently, in the same report, Migie refers to the government ordering the CWB to grant barley export licences to Ontario farmers.)