It looks like Canada’s new Ag Minister is retreating from making changes to the Canadian Wheat Board, at least not quickly. In meeting with CWB officials, Manitoba’s Ag Minister Rosann Wowchuk, and reporters after the meeting, Strahl said, “What I said to the wheat board’s board of directors is the same thing that I’ve been saying publicly . . . that our campaign promise was to move toward dual marketing.”
Strahl also said his controversial plan to let western farmers market their wheat without going through the board won’t happen in the near future. “I don’t anticipate any quick changes to the Canadian Wheat Board, and certainly not without lots of consultation with both farmers and the wheat board.” Some producers feel they could get better prices on their own, and point out that Ontario wheat farmers don’t have to sell through the board. But others, including the National Farmers Union, say an experiment with a voluntary board in the 1930s hurt producers and led to lower prices.
Strahl will discuss the issue further at a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers, set tentatively for March 20. I’m all for a dual market in Western Canada, but the thing that concerns me is that our American friends want to do away with the CWB too. That’s what doesn’t figure in my books. I’m thinking farmers have an advantage, but the Americans think they have a disadvantage. Go figure!