End of the single desk
Locals fly to Ottawa for passing of Bill C-18
by Charles Tweed
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Allan Johnston (centre) travelled to Ottawa to see federal Agricultural Minister Gerry Ritz (left) and Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP David Andreson pass legislation to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly. |
“It was incredible to watch the whole process in action, we were just enthralled with it,” said Johnston, who travelled to Ottawa in a 20-seat chartered plane to be in parliament when the bill was passed.
“We sat up in the gallery and looked down on it all and we were instructed by many people not to even lean on the counter or disrupt the house . . . you couldn’t hardly smile.”
“Then, when it was all over, we stood up because they passed it and the MPs and the Prime Minister were all standing up applauding and they were all thumbs up looking at us,” said Johnston.
“We gave them the thumbs up back and that was totally against the protocol of the parliament, but they were so excited that they were acknowledging us more than we were acknowledging them. It was just a great feeling. It was just so thrilling.”
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Souris- Moose Mountain MP Ed Komarnicki. “There are differences of opinion as to whether the government should go forward but I think predominantly most farmers would agree this will provide them with more options and it was good to see the bill pass its third reading and make its way to the senate.”
“It was a highlight for many supporters of marketing freedom for Western Canadian farmers,” said Komarnicki. “Many travelled to see the passing of the bill and I know it was an emotional moment for them.”
Komarnicki said many of the MPs were just as happy to be passing a bill that had been a major plank in the Conservative Party’s platform since the party formed government.
“Many of the MPs were quite happy to see the bill pass,” said Komarnicki. “To see it come to fruition after promising to do it since 2004 was quite an emotional time for the MPs. There was certainly a lot of applause and a general good feeling in the house and I appreciate that there are those that didn’t want to see it happen.”
Bill C-18 still has to be passed by the senate and receive Royal assent before becoming law but with a conservative majority now in the senate Komarnicki expects the process to move quickly.
“The Prime Minister said he’d like to see it passed into law before we break for Christmas,” said Komarnicki. “In my view the senate will pass it before then and when the house breaks the legislation will become law.”
After the bill was passed, Johnson and Joel Merkosky were ushered to a private room near the House floor, where supporters of the bill got a chance to celebrate with the Conservative MPs who voted to pass it.
“Within five minutes in came Ritz, Anderson and Harper to a standing ovation and cheers,” said Johnston. “It was quite an event and it was very rewarding to be there.”
Johnson said there was a real energy in the room as farmers, grain brokers and politicians who supported the bill celebrated the end of the Wheat Board’s monopoly.
“I had to go see it because I’ve been fighting for this all my life and I’m just tickled pink,” said Johnston. “There was a lot of people that missed it and some people who are dead that fought for this their whole life, and many of them were discussed.”
One of the more emotional responses came when the room recognized former CWB Director Jim Chatenay and all of his hard work to open the wheat and barley markets for western famers. Chatenay spent 24 days in jail for donating a bushel of wheat to a 4H club in Montana.
“It was very touching to see Jim Chatenay and the response he got,” said Johnston. “He just broke down in tears over the whole thing and it deepens your thoughts on how corrupt this whole thing is. To put someone in jail for selling their grain, I don’t care if it was one guy that didn’t want to sell his grain to the board, he should be allowed to.”
Since 1943 western grain growers have been forced to market their grain through the CWB. Johnson said the bill doesn’t abolish the CWB but instead opens the market for farmer.
“The Wheat Board isn’t going away and there is a real misconception that the Wheat Board is being dismantled and taken down when it’s just losing its monopoly,” he said.
Johnston criticized Regina Wascana Liberal MP Ralph Goodale.
“Goodale is a bold faced liar,” said Johnston.
“(Goodale) is telling people that the government is stealing $100 million from farmers in this contingency fund and that moron set up the contingency fund in 1998 and he knows what it is,” said Johnston. “All the money has to be spent on what it is there for and it’s there as a buffer for trading . . . the Board sells the grain and they don’t pay the farmer all the money, so the contingency fund sits there in case they lose $100 million. It’s a buffer.”
Komarnicki said the fund would be used to facilitate a smooth transition for the CWB.
“I think it’s important that whatever funds are required in the transition that the government provide those,” said Komarnicki. “The board to date hasn’t been all that co-operative and using funds and money for purposes that are not exactly in line with where the government is going and the action by the minister was to ensure the contingency fund was preserved and used for transitional purposes.”
Johnston believes the farmers who supported the CWB during a plebiscite held in the fall will change their views once they see the benefit of the open market.
“A lot of people can’t accept change,” said Johnston. “Those guys are hypocrites because they will be front and centre getting the highest price they can get.”
Johnson said he’s not sure what the new market will look like but said there are good examples of the free market running smoothly in Ontario and Quebec.
“There could be a whole lot of nothing different other than better pricing and better opportunities,” said Johnston.
The grain market opening will force the CWB to retool and reorganize—a process that will cost hundreds of jobs on the board, but Johnson doesn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.
“The Wheat Board started in 1935 and it survived till 1943 when the government under the Liberals made it a monopoly, but it was only getting 10 per cent of the grain. Ninety per cent of the grain was going to the open market because farmers didn’t want to pool it and wait,” said Johnston. “There will be new pooling options. The status quo will not be good enough for the board moving forward. There will have to be massive changes to survive and if they don’t survive then they weren’t supposed to.”
“They never mention that when the government made the monopoly they lost about 50 companies that were doing business in Winnipeg,” said Johnston. “They might be back and I’m sure most of the Wheat Board employees will not get jobs in the grain industry because they have no trading experience. They’re just puppets.”
“Vote for freedom,” said Johnston. “The world is not going to come to an end.”
“The MPs were all waving with their thumbs up looking right over the opposition into the gallery and even some of the opposition turned and looked up,” said Johnston. “It was frigging exciting and fun to be there.”
“Forty-five percent of farmers didn’t vote because they though it was going to be an open market anyway,” said Johnston. “It was a waste of farmers’ money for that plebiscites.”
Myles Fuchs, a farmer in the Fleming area, said he wished the whole situation surrounding the CWB was handled better.
“For some time we’ve realized that the present government is committed to removing the monopoly and the CWB is going to be done away with so that didn’t come as a surprise,” said Fuchs. “I think there hasn’t been a lot of thought and planning about the transition from the CWB to whatever type of marketing structure will take place.”
Fuchs believes one of the biggest changes through the whole process should have been a binding vote held by producers regarding the future of the CWB.
“In fairness to producers and being the type of issue it is and the impact it has on many people that it would have only been fair to producers to have a fair and binding vote,” said Fuchs. “A vote that didn’t have any trick questions . . . and that would have given fair opportunity for everyone to vote. I know in a lot of the producer/director votes and even the plebiscite, I don’t think there was a real seriousness taken on the part of the producers.”
“There would have been a greater seriousness on the part of the producers to look at the issues and make a decision on how to vote,” said Fuchs. “I do honestly believe if everyone who had a vested interest in marketing grain voted, the vote would have been for change.”
Fuchs said the notion that the CWB can exist in a free market isn’t true, at least not in its present form.
“The role of the CWB was to market in accordance with the legislation that had been passed in the past,” said Fuchs. “The board isn’t an entity without the monopoly . . . You have a Wheat Board or you don’t.”
Johnston suggested the opposition parties used the issue for political gains and couldn’t understand how an MP from Quebec could suggest the free market is acceptable for eastern Canadian producers and not western Canadian producers. Fuchs said there should have been more emphasis on the issues affecting producers from the opposition parties.
“I do think that the opposition parties were a little irresponsible in not focusing on the issues that need to be addressed with the CWB not there as it is now,” said Fuchs. “How to keep producer car loadings for the branch lines? What happens to our branch line railway system? What is the marketing system going to look like? What about the Port of Churchill? The focus was on keeping the board and people stayed with the notion of how grand or terrible it is going to be if we get rid of the board, and there was no thought to the real issues.”
Fuchs isn’t sure what the new marketplace will resemble, but suggested it would have both positives and negatives for wheat producers in western Canada.
“The CWB is bound by law that it can only sell 25 per cent of what it expects the entire wheat crop to be in any one given quarter and this was a sore spot for some producers,” said Fuchs. “Producers wanted to price their entire crop at a point in time which they felt was best for the year and that was difficult under the CWB structure and that option will now be there.”
“How much margin is going to be taken by those doing the marketing, that remains to be seen,” said Fuchs. “I think the net dollars coming into producers will decline slightly . . . Many producers are willing to accept that to have an option to go in and contract and try to pick a price at some point in the year. They feel more in control.”
One area that Fuchs said had to be addressed dealt with the transparency of trading, feeling strongly that it was important to set up a price guide similar to the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.
“There is going have to be a Canadian traded futures contract,” said Fuchs. “We’re definitely going to need Canadian contracts and I don’t see an open market functioning properly without some visible and open price finding mechanism.”
