by SUSAN MANN
Federal Agriculture Gerry Ritz is pleased with a Supreme Court of Canada decision denying the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board leave to appeal a lower court ruling.
In a prepared statement, Ritz says “the overwhelming majority of Prairie grain farmers are already taking advantage of the benefits of an open market.”
Ritz removed the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly over western wheat and barley in 2011. The change enabled Prairie farmers to choose to sell their wheat and barley to the wheat board or other grain companies.
Wheat board supporters took the government to court, saying it broke the law governing the wheat board by not holding a producer vote before the change was implemented. The Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board won in Federal Court but the Federal Court of Appeal overturned that decision.
Ritz says “we are pleased with today’s decision that upheld the right of Western grain farmers to make their own business decisions.” BF
Comments
It's too bad Ritz didn't feel the same way about the right of non-supply managed farmers to make their own business decisions without having to always compete with the incomes and purchasing power of the 800-pound gorilla of supply management. The second lesson which won't be learned, is that 20 years from now, the National Farmers Union will still be citing their efforts to defend single-desk selling at the CWB, even though the CWB and single-desk selling are both non-issues in Ontario, as a reason why they should have been re-accredited as a general farm organization in Ontario.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Tonite on the Lang and O'leary exchange, a member of the NFU defended the wheat board, and actually claimed that it should be brought back. I thought it still existed? When questioned about hedging, he obviously had no clue. Surely someone more educated could have appeared as this give us farmers a bad rap in the public eye.
Maybe the Lang and O'leary exchange could get a farmer to appear from the west who properly sold his wheat and is happy that he/she has the freedom to make their own economic decisions.
Raube Beuerman
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