News Articles

March 9, 2009
By Paul Beingessner

Grain Commission Changes Motivated by Misinformation

Writing a newspaper column is all about words, obviously. If you write regularly, you learn something about the power words can have to influence people. Politicians know this very well, as does anyone who uses the media to get out a message. When politicians communicate with the public, it is often disrespectfully called "spin". This means taking a situation or event and twisting the message so it communicates what you want it to communicate. We used to call it propaganda, but we only seem to use that word now to refer to things done in other countries. Tin-pot dictators use propaganda. Leaders of upstanding democratic countries use spin.

Some politicians are better at this than others. Some are smooth, some are clumsy. Some mix their spin with half-truths and outright fabrications. Gerry Ritz would fall into this category. He doesn't seem to let the facts get in the way of the issues.

His attempts to defend the changes he is proposing to the Canada Grain Act and hence the Canadian Grain Commission show once again that Gerry went to the Goebbels School of Communication.

Changes to the Canadian Grain Commission have been on the agenda of the Harper government for some time. Bill C-39 was introduced in December, 2007, but died on the order paper when Parliament ended with the election call. Bill C-13, introduced in late February, appears identical to C-39. It calls for an end to mandatory inward weighing and inspection at port, changes the CGC mandate away from its focus on protecting producers and eliminates the need for grain companies to post security with the CGC to cover potential defaults on payments.

These proposals have come under scrutiny from many quarters. Removing the bonding requirement for grain companies has raised red flags with producers, especially in the current unstable economic environment. In defending his legislation, Ritz has played fast and easy with the truth. In an interview with a reporter from Golden West Radio in Altona, Manitoba, Ritz declared that the best that has ever been paid out through the Payment Security Program was 30 cents on the dollar. Because of this, he can easily declare the program is not working.

The only trouble is, he's wrong. The Payment Security Program has actually been quite successful. Over the last ten years, the CGC has issued payments to producers in nine cases of default by grain companies. In six of these, the payment was 100 % of claims. In one, it was 99.8 %. In one, the bankruptcy of Naber Seeds in 2002, payout reached 51.4 % of claims and in the case of Venture Seeds Ltd in 2004, payment was just 28 % of claims. Total payments from the bonding required by the CGC were $4,503,000 to 343 producers, for an average of $13,127 per claimant. The total payouts were actually 77.15 % of claims, not 30 % as Ritz claimed.

In the interview with the Golden West reporter, Ritz also claimed that this protection would only be removed when something better was in place. Again, this is not true. Bill C-13 removes the bonding requirement. Full stop. It does not propose any alternatives and no viable alternatives are on the table.

Ritz went on to claim that the CGC has been under a moratorium for more than a decade (he was likely referring to a moratorium on fee increases) and as a result it is not offering the services it could be. When I consulted an official at the CGC he told me he was not aware of any new services that would be facilitated by C-13. In fact, the recent decision by the CGC to end optional inspection at inland terminals for grain bound for the U.S. came about because the Minister has ordered the CGC to focus on its mandate, and not to perform optional services. The mandate is found in the act and C-13 diminishes, not expands the mandate. The services the Minister is referring to appear to exist only in the Minister's head.

I want to be charitable to Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz. He has a reputation for saying things to reporters that, to put it kindly, are creative. I don't think he lies intentionally, as in his claim that payouts through the CGC Payment Security Program have never reached 30 %. But if the Minister doesn't know the facts of the situation, if he hasn't figured out that passing C-13 ends payment security, that there is no alternative waiting in the wings, where does he get his information? If the aides responsible for briefing him are that ignorant of the facts, he should find some new ones. If the Minister himself follows the industry so little that he doesn't remember any of the bankruptcy cases but one, what is he doing in the position?

So, where does Gerry get his information? The Grain Growers of Canada might be one source. In a February 1, 2008 letter to Ritz, the group claimed that "The termination of bonding system, although controversial, will ultimately be a step in the right direction as the bonds to date have not provided proper coverage anyway." Perhaps Ritz took this vague bit of misinformation and simply applied his creative juices. He should try to hang with a better informed class of people.

© Paul Beingessner

Paul Beingessner is a third-generation grain and livestock farmer near Truax, Saskatchewan. His farm is 60 miles north of the Montana border and about 200 miles west of the border with the province of Manitoba.

He writes:

"With my wife and 10 year old son, (we have four adult
children) I run a small cow/calf (35 cows), sheep (50 ewes) and grain
operation. We grow hard red spring wheat, durum, and feed grains on 1000
acres and we have 600 acres of tame hay and pasture.

"We are converting a further 600 acres to tame grass and plan to increase
our cattle herd to 100 cows and the sheep to 200 ewes over the next few
years. Our area has a mix of straight grain farms, often 3,000 to 6,000
acres, and mixed farms – mainly cow/calf and grain. Farmers grow a lot
of dry peas, lentils, chickpeas, canola and flax, in addition to wheat and
barley.

"I have written a column about agriculture and transportation for 12
years. It is carried in about two dozen community weekly papers across
Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, as well as a few that cover the
larger area. I write about the issues that interest me most at the
time: a mix of biotechnology, transportation, intellectual property rights, and farm politics.

"If there is any time left over from farming and trying to keep up with
the news, we try to spend it with the most important people in our lives
– our children and extended family. (With a little hunting thrown in.)
"We are active in our church, school and community, love our animals, and
are grateful to have the opportunity to farm."

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