(Commodity News Service Canada) –– Prairie grain growers are likely to see an increase in initial payments for their wheat and barley marketed through the Canadian Wheat Board, given the increases in these markets over the last couple of months. However, those payments have been delayed.
The CWB on Sept. 7 sent a recommendation to the federal government for increases to the 2010-11 initial payments for wheat, durum and barley.
But with the significant rising of the market in late summer and early fall, the CWB sent a revised recommendation on Oct. 4 to the federal government for increases to the 2010-11 initial payments for wheat, durum and barley, asking for $50-C$70 per tonne.
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“While the government was reviewing our first recommendation, we changed the recommendation at the end of September because of the rise in the market,” said John Lyons, spokesperson for the Canadian Wheat Board in Winnipeg.
Southwestern Saskatchewan MP David Anderson, the parliamentary secretary for the CWB, said that if the CWB had not withdrawn its first request and just submitted the second, the government would not have had to start the review process over.
“I’m really not sure why they pulled it back, because they could have just made the second request,” said Anderson, a long-time vocal critic of the CWB and its single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley.
“A lot of farmers are asking why the prices were set so low in the first place, and getting impatient in waiting for their payments,” he said.
Both Anderson and Lyons expect the six- to eight-week review process to be complete near the end of November. That’s the same time when initial payments could reach the pockets of producers. Payments were to be received near the start of November if not for the second recommendation.
“Warm and fuzzy”
Winnipeg MP Pat Martin, the New Democrats’ critic for the federal Treasury Board, on Tuesday ripped the Conservative government for the delay in approving the adjustments, coming during the election period for five farmer members on the CWB’s board.
“It does not take the Treasury Board eight weeks to get initial payments to grain producers, except when (Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz) does not want nice, big, fat cheques from the (CWB) winding up in the mailboxes at the same time as the ballots for wheat board directors,” Martin said in the Commons.
The scale of expected payments, Martin said, “may give farmers a warm and fuzzy feeling about this great Canadian institution that is providing big, fat initial payment cheques to themselves.”
The government, as the guarantor of the CWB’s initial payments to farmers, is required by law to approve those payments and adjustments to same.
Government approval, in turn, requires analysis from the federal agriculture and finance departments and approval from the Treasury Board.
The government brought forward legislation in May that would end the requirement for Treasury Board approval. It’s expected that such a move, when or if approved, would speed up the process for CWB initial, interim and final payments by as much as three weeks.
That legislation, part of Bill C-27 on the government’s order paper, passed first reading in May but hasn’t yet gone forward for further debate or discussion.
— With files from AGCanada.com staff
