News Articles

June 28, 2008
Winnipeg Free Press
By Laura Rance

For PM, single-desk fight isn't over

These are frustrating times for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He is arguably the most powerful person in Canada, yet he still can't get what he wants.

The Harper government's efforts to kill the Canadian Wheat Board's single desk have been struck down by the Canadian judiciary not once, not twice, but three times since 2006.

In the latest ruling June 20, Federal Court Justice Roger Hughes determined the federal government could not order the board, as it did in 2006, to stay on the sidelines in the debate over whether to continue single desk marketing for barley.

Hughes ruled the so-called gag order not only infringed on the duty of the farmer-controlled board of directors to manage the organization, it contravenes Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He found no evidence that there was any misuse of farmers' funds. Rather, he said the cabinet order amounted to over-zealousness on the part of the government and a blatant attempt to silence debate.

The judge reportedly even made reference to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe as he heard the evidence of the government's tactics.

This ruling follows an earlier decision striking down the government's bid to unilaterally declare the barley market open. Not surprisingly, that court ruling, which was upheld under appeal, found that legislation can only be changed by Parliament.

Rather than yield to this rather consistent message, Harper has become even more belligerent. "We will continue to fight in Parliament, we will continue to fight in the legislature, but the bottom line is this, mark my words, western Canadian farmers want this freedom and they are going to get it and anybody who stands in their way is going to get walked over," Harper told reporters.

The bluster and bitterness about barley freedom conjures up images of slavery; one would think that board bureaucrats rigidly control every single kernel of barley produced in Western Canada. The fact is, 80 per cent of the barley farmers produce is already sold outside of the board because it goes directly into the domestic feed market.

All the hullabaloo is over the two to three million tonnes that are exported for feed or malting out of a crop that has averaged 11 million tonnes over the last five years. By comparison, farmers produce on average 22 million tonnes of wheat and durum, 16.2 million tonnes or 72 per cent of which is sold through the board.

This fight is over how best to market 10 per cent of the total barley, wheat and durum Prairie farmers produce, although many fear that if the barley pool goes, wheat will soon follow.

The board continues to develop options for farmers who don't want to price through the single desk. They can virtually opt out using various producer payment options -- programs developed to give producers more flexibility without undermining the single desk. Many of the wheat farmers who chose to do that in this year of rising prices wound up pricing their crop at levels significantly below the final pooled price. The point is, they had that choice.

Ah, but there's the principle of the thing. In order to sell their own grain, farmers must first buy it back from the board -- paying a price that is as close as possible to the world price. That is what rankles those who want to be free of the single desk.

It is a debatable point -- among farmers. The only things making this issue nationally significant are the lengths to which the Harper government is willing to go to impose its ideology.

In reality, farmers are generally ho-hum about the whole deal. There are extreme views on both sides of the marketing issue, but the folks in the middle seem to have much more pressing issues on their plate -- such as high input prices and poor rail service.

It's true that when asked by the most recent CWB poll whether they'd like a dual market, most said yes. Who wouldn't? Yet two-thirds of those polled also acknowledge it is unrealistic to expect the board to compete without grain handling facilities. An even higher proportion (69 per cent) agreed the CWB's new pricing options provide many of the benefits of a dual market.

Sixty per cent of farmers thought the feds should have dropped the whole thing after the appeal courts upheld an earlier ruling saying the CWB Act could only be changed by Parliament, not a cabinet order. Seventy-seven per cent say the board's elected directors should decide its future.

Which statistic should the federal government heed?

Given the government's response, this isn't over. Harper might eventually find a way to impose his definition of freedom on Prairie grain marketing. And Robert Mugabe may become the next leader of Zimbabwe.

Laura Rance is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator.

© Winnipeg Free Press

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