05) TORIES PREPARE TO DESTROY CANADIAN WHEAT BOARD

PV Vancouver Bureau

            The Harper government is preparing to use its new majority to gut the Canadian Wheat Board, warns the National Farmers Union (NFU).

            Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz recently warned that the government intends to remove the CWB's single desk authority to sell wheat and barley through legislation. He also stated that the CWB would continue to be an "option" for farmers after the changes, and that farmers would be better off without the single desk.

            "Ritz is not being honest with farmers. The fact is farmers won't be better off without the single desk, because the CWB won't survive without it," says NFU President Terry Boehm. "This idea of a dual market is a myth. It's the CWB with its single desk, or no CWB at all."

            The NFU points to Australia, where the government removed the single desk of the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) in 2008. Today the AWB no longer exists. It was broken up, with parts sold off to Agrium and Cargill, two of the world's biggest transnational grain monopolies. This happened despite the fact that the AWB possessed considerable assets, in contrast to the CWB which has not been allowed to possess assets such as grain handling facilities.

            "The Harper government continues to argue that farmers will be better off without the CWB. However, they have never produced any financial analysis to demonstrate this," points out Boehm. "The only academic studies on this have always proven that the CWB brings substantial benefits to farmers through the power of its single desk selling advantage. The fact is, the CWB brings $1.5 billion into farmers pockets every year, money they would not have otherwise."

            "The advantage of the single desk to farmers is no surprise either," concludes the NFU president. "Patents work the same way for big corporations. Patents give corporations exclusive selling rights on their products. Why do you think corporations defend their patents so vigorously? It's the same with OPEC in the oil sector and it's the same with Canpotex in the Potash sector, a point the Brad Wall government was quick to make in Saskatchewan last fall."

            During the recent federal election, Ritz said that it was up to farmers to decide the future of the Wheat Board. Soon after, Ritz reversed himself, stating that changes to the CWB single desk authority would be legislated.

            "Clearly the Conservative government cannot be trusted. They say one thing during the election campaign, and do the opposite when the election is over," according to NFU Region 3 Coordinator Joe Dama.

            Since its formation, the Wheat Board has been governed by a 15-member board of directors, ten of whom are elected by Prairie farmers, with another five appointed by Ottawa. Since taking office in 2006, the Conservatives have tried a wide range of tactics to eliminate the CWB or remove its single-desk authority. But CWB elections have consistently resulted in a majority of single-desk supporters, despite government tricks such as removing voting rights for many farmers.

            "The Conservative government needs to respect the director elections, the process through which farmers decide the future of the CWB. The Conservatives are showing contempt towards the farmers who have expressed their views on the board through the director elections, and whose livelihoods are at stake. This is totally unacceptable," says Dama, warning that the supply management system is the next Tory target.

            "They have said publicly that they are not going to touch supply management," adds Dama. "But, privately they are in negotiations where getting rid of supply management is on the table, both at the World Trade Organization and with the European Union."

(The above article is from the July 1-31, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)