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NEWMARKET, ON -  Refusing to take into account the results of the CWB plebiscite and ignoring existing legislation, the Harper government is acquiescing to American demands and rejecting the legacy of a Conservative Government that has lasted 75 years.

The Canadian Wheat Board came into being in 1935 as an answer to the plight of western Canadian farmers in the midst of the Great Depression and in response to appeals by western farmers during the 1920s and 1930s for a government agency to market their wheat with a fairness to all producers unavailable from large private corporate interest.Today, the Canadian Wheat Board is the sole marketer of western Canadian wheat and barley sold for human consumption, both domestically and abroad. Wheat and barley farmers, farming communities and even provincial governments are protected against the periodic economic shocks to the marketplace which bankrupt smaller producers. Managing $4 billion of wheat sales annually, the CWB is one of Canada’s largest exporters and keeps control of the fate of Canadian farmers in Canadian hands. The Canadian Wheat Board has become the single most important exporter of wheat in the world.

Under both Liberal and Conservative governments, and with the supportive advice of farmers, CWB governance has evolved to increase producer control of management so that today two-thirds of the CWB Board of Directors is chosen by producers.

The majority 62% support by grain farmers in the recent plebiscite for continuance of the Canadian Wheat Board as the sole marketer of western Canadian wheat and barley is a further advice and direction by western Canadian wheat and barley farmers who wish to keep their fate in their own, Canadian, hands that the Harper government must acknowledge and honour as have all Liberal and Conservative governments before them.

Continuance of the Canadian Wheat Board single-desk authority to sell Canadian wheat and barley is as important to the interest of western Canadian farmers, communities and provincial governments and to Canada as a whole as is the recent potash decision.

Pressures to end the CWB single-desk are merely ideological, political, represent a clear minority opinion even amongst farmers, and reflect the interest of foreign-owned, particularly American, corporate interest rather than the interest of western Canadian farmers. They are unsupported by the wishes of western Canadian farmers or by international law. This is demonstrated by the CWB democratic plebiscite result and by rulings by the World Trade Organization.

Faced with continuing attempts by the American governments acting on behalf of their grain marketing corporations to have the World Trade Organization declare the CWB guilty of unfair trading practices, the legality and legitimacy of the CWB have been vindicated.

The WTO finding was as follows:

"The Board satisfies producers by ensuring that their financial returns from the CWB's sales of wheat or barley are maximized. The mission the CWB's Board has given the CWB confirms this point: the CWB is to "market…quality products and services in order to maximize returns to western Canadian grain producers." Moreover, the CWB Act requires that, in the exercise of their responsibilities, directors and officers of the CWB "act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the [CWB]." For these reasons, we are not persuaded that the CWB has an incentive, because of its "legal structure" to make its wheat sales on the basis of considerations other than price, quality, availability, marketability etc." (Source:...............)

The Harper Government would destroy this capability of acting for the benefit of producers which, once altered, could never be re-established. Come good times or bad, farmers would have no choice except to sell their grain as individuals to multi national corporations against their expressed will and best interest.

That there be a government held plebiscite among producers is part of existing Canadian legislation. The result of the CWB plebiscite is being wilfully ignored by the Harper government which can claim no specific mandate to impose its ideological agenda.

The sole reason presented for abolition of the single desk is an ideological preference for a free market which excludes government-run participants internationally under the pretence of freedom of choice locally. This is merely divide-and-rule in the interest of foreign corporate players. An inconsistent position in that dairy, chicken and egg producers are governed by marketing boards which have been, to this point, assured of their continuation in negotiating international trade agreements. But is this the thin edge of the wedge? Will western Canadian farmer interest and democratically expressed preference be sacrificed on the alter of ideology?

The proposed action of destroying the ability of the Canadian Wheat Board to market Canadian grains around the world, a capability established by and a legacy of a Conservative government, a capability supported by producers, opposed unsuccessfully by America based on a belief not practised in regard to other agricultural products is wrong.

This action is opposed by the Progressive Canadian Party which follows the belief of its Progressive Conservative forebear John George Diefenbaker in "Progress. with care". In this proposed action there is no progress but returning producers to their pre-1935 situation, and this without care for their expressed wishes to have the CWB single desk continue.