Editor, The News;
The federal government is delivering on an election promise, giving prairie farmers the freedom to market their own wheat.
This is a freedom that farmers in the rest of Canada have always had. Why, one must ask, are prairie farmers treated differently that farmers in the rest of Canada? Throughout my 30 plus years of farming, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has never allowed me to be exempt and market my own wheat. In fact, Southern Alberta farmers who tried to market their OWN wheat, were sentenced and sent to jail.
Allen Oberg, Chairman of the CWB, along with eight of the CWB directors and the board’s management, are supported by radical left-leaning socialists. In a coordinated effort, they are now making accusations that the Harper government won’t let farmers keep their beloved wheat board. To the contrary, the Harper government will allow. and is indeed encouraging, those who wish to continue to market through the CWB to do so. If the CWB is doing the job it professes to do, farmers will continue to use it. The truth is, the CWB directors and management won’t allow the CWB to operate under a voluntary system; it has to be compulsory. Wow. So the basis of their argument is that everyone must be forced to comply, or it won’t work. My logic tells me that is a flawed argument for a flawed system.
Another claim made by the CWB directors is that in a recent vote, the majority of farmers did not approve of the government’s proposed legislation. With regard to this argument, one needs to examine the definition of “farmers”. Everyone who holds a permit book was allowed to cast a ballot. This group included many hobby farmers, few of whom are active full-time wheat producers. The vast majority of full-time dryland wheat farmers in the prairies want the right to market their own wheat in the same way they sell all other crops and livestock that they produce. Previous votes held by the province of Alberta and federal government of Canada indicated a clear majority for the freedom to market.
Over the last few years, most, of not all, of the compulsory wheat marketing systems in the world have been dismantled. This is true of countries like Poland, Ukraine and since 2008, Australia. Even in Canada, the compulsory hog marketing system has disappeared and I don’t hear any hue and cry for a reinstatement of these compulsory marketing laws, which were similar to our existing wheat board monopoly. So, in conclusion, let’s examine this issue for what it is, a fight over NDP socialistic ideology versus individual freedom to market one’s own product. This is coupled with the CWB’s veiled attempt to protect its monopoly and their own agency’s thousands of jobs. Their threat to use the court system is an attempt to find a judge that believes he/she should make laws, instead of allowing duly elected Members of Parliament to do so, is an insult to democracy and freedom.
Ron Hierath
LETHBRIDGE