Editor, the News;
The principle asset of the Canadian Wheat Board is the Single Desk. If we take that away there is only the name and no functional marketing system left. If Bill C-18 receives Royal Assent, the government will put the Canadian Wheat Board into receivership and all the grain merchants will receive the control over the entire grain marketing system and the grain industry.
The multi-national grain companies, grain merchants and grain brokers, the federal Conservative government, the Alberta government, the Saskatchewan government and a few anti-wheat board individuals from the Western Wheat Growers want western Canada to have a grain marketing system like the United States where the grain merchants and multi-national grain companies can do whatever they want to enhance there own bottom line at the cost of the grain producers.
When our neighbours realized agriculture was not sustainable, they lobbied hard and received a large subsidy or an enhanced marketing system. Guess who gets the most support from the subsidy? The biggest producers-because they cannot survive without it, just like the small producers cannot survive without it. I believe the big and small producers need the Canadian Wheat Board, like our neighbours in the United States need the subsidy. So there is only one obvious real option. It is simple, keep the single desk for the Canadian Wheat Board or have the federal government pay a large subsidy to the Western grain farmers.
Everett Tanis
PICTURE BUTTE