A proposed federal bill that would compel the Canadian Wheat Board into arbitration over its grain handling agreements could cost farmers “tens of millions” of dollars per year, the CWB said Tuesday.
“This legislation would essentially take money from farmers and hand it over to the grain companies,” said CWB chief operating officer Ward Weisensel in a release, referring to amendments to the CWB Act introduced by the government Monday.
“The CWB currently negotiates supply-chain agreements with the goal of maximizing farmer returns. This power would be greatly reduced.”
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The bill is also unnecessary, he said, since grain companies can already arbitrate disputes with the CWB in court or through the federal Competition Bureau.
This provision “would actually give grain companies more freedom to increase their profits at farmers’ expense,” the CWB said.
The government on Monday said this amendment “would encourage producers and grain elevator companies to pursue the option of commercial arbitration, with the CWB, instead of resorting to the court system, which can be lengthy and costly.”
The amendment, which still must get past a vote in the House of Commons, specifies that the CWB could not “unreasonably withhold consent” to go to arbitration with farmers or grain companies. It would apply only to the CWB’s “commercial behaviour” and not any decisions the board is authorized to make under the CWB Act, the government said.
The bill’s other amendment to the CWB Act proposes to grant the federal Cabinet power to amend or repeal any regulation created by the Act’s section 47.1 — the section that now requires the government to consult with the CWB board of directors and hold a producer vote before excluding any type of wheat or barley from the CWB’s single desk.
Citing quotations from Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in recent weeks, CWB chairman Ken Ritter in the same release said the federal government’s rhetoric has recently changed from insistence on a “strong and viable CWB” to descriptions of the organization as a “bad dream” that will “blow away” or be hit by an “avalanche.”
“There is little remaining doubt that the federal government intends to dismantle an organization that has long played an invaluable role on behalf of western Canadian farmers,” he said.
