First, even standing alone, the proposed changes are a very significant change in the way one of Canada's biggest crops is brought to market. To say it is minor or local is to misunderstand the nature of food production and exports in Canada.
Second, ending the wheat board is just the first step to dismantling supply management across Canada. That will have impact in every province -- from dairy farmers in Quebec to producers in Western Canada -- and the regime will be radically different.
Regulation is said to be bad for the public interest. The same was said just recently about banking regulation; fortunately Canada did not eliminate that regulation. If a system works, why change it, especially in difficult economic times?
8 comments:
"... Regulation is said to be bad for the public interest...."
Regulation and "supply management" are hardly the same. Morton - would you like to be told how many hours a year you can bill, and to whom ..?
Why aren't Ontario farmers lining up to join the wheat/barley board if it's such a great idea in 2011?
Michael St.Paul's
Your points are reasonable even if I don't agree with all of them.
The point I'd make is that groups will take (if it hasn't already happened) the decision to the courts.
The concern I have is that your opinions and mine are meaningless. Judges will decide.
We now see, so it seems that people can camp in city parks, drink and take drugs all under the protection of the courts.
It is becoming a farce. A politician wants the courts to change our electoral system.
Anon #2 -- I agree -- we are leaving the tough political decisions to judges and that's not good. Anon #1 fair enough, although I suspect lawyers would globally be delighted to have a fixed stream of paying work (even at a lower rate). I know I would. But I also know lawyers, as opposed to farmers, are not in an risk of going extinct ... .
''...misunderstand the nature of food production and exports in Canada...'
Western farmers were forced to sell their grain to CWB 'for export',
leaving the domestic market wide open to Eastern farmers.
Perhaps that is why the Lib and Dipper MPs are so against stopping the practice of Western farmers being tossed in jail,
competition nationally...
Monopoly ends with announcement of new pasta plant (in Regina)
http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/monopoly-ends-with-announcement-of-new-pasta-plant-9687
Yes, do take this to the highest court,
and have our Supremes decide if Western farmers should be jailed for selling their own grain,
and Eastern farmers are free to do so.
Explain to me J Morton, how this would stand up in court.
Also,
dairy/egg/poultry supply management is a NATIONAL pool,
no region in Canada is cherry picked to be forced by law to export their product.
Sure, force the eastern farmers to be part of the CWB. What will be the result 3 years later? "Stop forcing us great Western farmers to subsidize the low-quality grain of the evul lazy farmers from Quebec and Ottawa!"
Here's a potential solution to many of the stated problems with the wheat board: First allow farmers to sell their grain to whoever they want to, but second, give the wheat board a monopoly on raw grain exports from Canada.
Farmers could sell to the wheat board directly, or to someone else like a flour mill or pasta plant. They still wouldn't be able to just truck their own grain over the border themselves, but does anyone really believe the Americans will let them do that now for more than a few months? When the agriculture lobbies in the US speak up to protect their subsidies, they get their protectionism.
Of course, transnational Big Agribusiness would still be pissed off, but screw them.
There's a big difference between the CWB and marketing boards. The first criminalizes farmers for daring to sell their own property to someone other than the government mandated buyer. That is wrong, it's evil.
Marketing boards restrict who can produce in the first place. This means that you can;t just open a chicken farm or dairy, first you have to buy quota. That quota is extremely valuable now and chicken farmers in BC basically have a license to print money.
The CWB hurts the producer who wants to do his own thing with his own property, the latter hurts consumers who pay massively inflated prices in order to "support" Canadian farms.
I am opposed to both. I dislike paying more for milk and cheese, and getting very poor selection in cheese, or very expensive cheese.
The only difference I see is that dismantling marketing boards is harder because there would need to be compensation for farmers who purchased quota in good faith. Once that is done, ditch them both.
I think that when we start seeing large-scale farm failures, those farmers that supported ending the marketing boards will rue their error.
Of course, it is worth keeping in mind that the campaign to end the marketing boards is being waged by those who would profit by the end of the marketing boards, those who can gain market share by squeezing farmers.
What we want to hear from the Liberals is not just a statement that ;this is bad' but some indication of what they are doing now to ensure this doesn't become fait accompli, and a plan outlining how they would repair the damage caused by Conservative policies should they win the next election.
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