Canada’s Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced Wednesday (April 15) that the Canadian government has approved a “deal reached between Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and G3 Global Grain Group which ensures CWB becomes a fully private and global competitor in the Canadian grain sector.”
“The removal of the CWB monopoly…offers Canadian farmers access to a new global player to compete for their grain and more delivery points for farmers to sell their grain,” said Ritz in a statement released Wednesday.
The Canadian Wheat Board was established by Parliament in 1935 and governed by the Canadian Wheat Board Act to protect wheat and barley farmers from the devastating effects of the depression.
Amid controversy the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper passed legislation in 2011 to end the Board’s monopoly with Bill C-18, Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, which paved the way for the privatization of the Board.
The legislation that ended the CWB’s monopoly over marketing Prairie wheat and barley gave the revamped wheat board (which had been purged of farmer-elected directors and now run by a board of Harper government appointees) until 2016 to come up with a privatization plan and until 2017 to implement it. Otherwise, it would be dissolved.
In 2014, Official Opposition MP Pat Martin, reacting to a major backlog of grain shipments underlined the importance of the Wheat Board: “The wheat board not only got farmers the best prices, but they organized the orderly shipment of grain every year,” he said. Martin added “the robber barons with the railroads and the grain companies” are gouging farmers.
“Farmers must be shaking their head, wondering what the hell happened to the security that they used to enjoy with the Canadian Wheat Board,
More information:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada press release – Stronger CWB increases competition in grain sector – here
CBC News – Investor G3 Global Grain Group taking over former Canadian Wheat Board – here
CBC News – Supreme Court won’t hear farmers’ appeal of $17B wheat board lawsuit – here
CBC News (2014) – Wheat board could have helped move grain, NDP MP Pat Martin says – here
Globe and Mail – Why so many farmers miss the Wheat Board – here
Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board Facebook page – here
Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, Bill C-18 (text) – here
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