The Yorkton Chamber of Commerce took the lead recently in trying to determine whether the Conservative government plan to end the single-desk selling monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board was a good move, or whether the CWB is an institution which should be left as it is.
Kyle Korneychuk, director with the CWB, took the position the board should be retained, while Geoff Hewson, a director with the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, took the side calling for on open marketing.
Now as you might imagine Korneychuk and Hewson do not see eye-to-eye on the issue of the Wheat Board, and both made passionate points in support of their view, although as one of the presenters stated after the debate, he doubted any in the Legion Hall in Yorkton had been swayed from whatever view they walked in with.
For farmers, at least, the debate about whether the single-desk selling of Western Canadian wheat, durum, and export barley is the appropriate system or whether farmers should have marketing freedom is not a new one. It has been discussed in town hall meetings and coffee shops, and farmer votes for years.
The numbers have fluctuated over those years, but not dramatically. There is a slim majority of farmers who like the CWB system as it is, and that support has more, or less held through the debates.
The biggest question for farmers, and one Korneychuk and Hewson tried their best to answer, is what will the world be like post-CWB, if the federal government manages to proceed with the dismantling of the board as it has announced.
Korneychuk sees a world where farmers will lose money. He sees the saving of the Port of Churchill and producer cars as two examples.
Korneychuk said farmers are likely to lose $8-$12 million annually when the Port of Churchill falls out of use, adding that most of that will be lost in east central Saskatchewan, the traditional catchment area for the northern port. In addition, 90 per cent of producer cars are now grains destined for the CWB, and if those are lost, farmers will lose another $14 million in savings.
Hewson suggested the CWB is a stumbling block in terms of value-added processing, and once the wheat board disappears, and farmers a have marketing choice, there will be more processing on the Prairies.
Hewson said he believes the Western Canadian economy will be stimulated in a post-monopoly system by the creation of more value-added processing of wheat, durum and barley on the Prairies. As evidence, he pointed to the two canola crushing plants, and oat processing facility here in Yorkton, noting both commodities are marketed freely by producers.
"I do believe this change will bring more value-added processing to the Prairies," he said, adding value-added is what can be realized "when markets operate freely."
Both Korneychuk's expectation of there being less money for farmers, and Hewson's opposite vision of better returns to be had are positions of faith, since until it happens, the exact impact of the loss of the CWB is one of supposition.
The unknown is always like that, and the likely truth is there will be gains and losses in either scenario.
What should be more troublesome to all farmers and all Canadians is the Conservative government's handling of this issue.
Making a change is the prerogative of the government, and with its majority, it is nearly inevitable.
However, there is an act governing the CWB, and in that act previous governments laid out a process for change, and that includes a vote by farmers.
The government is ignoring its own act. That is scary. Such a heavy-handed approach to change, ignoring its own act, should not be taken lightly by anyone, especially when the Conservatives have the majority to amend the act through Parliament, a path open to them, but one they likely fear because it would not be an easy process since the opposition is likely to fight for farmers to have a direct vote on the issue.
If the Conservatives are ready to run roughshod over the act governing the CWB, which act might be the next one they choose to ignore in the future?
That may be the key issue in the current debate, yet it is being lost as both sides battle over their long entrenched views on the CWB, rather than on how the Conservatives are thumbing their noses at the acts of government, and the parliamentary system.
