CWB Fleeces Taxpayers and Organic Farmers
(March 6, 2004 - OPSG) “Last year, prairie organic farmers, marketing their own grain into
markets the CWB can’t access, were forced by CWB policy to pay thousands
upon thousands of dollars into the pooling accounts.” states
Kirk Torkelson, an organic farmer at Beaubier, Saskatchewan and new member
of OSPG, “In my own case, the loss of $2.28 per bushel
really hurts my bottom line.”
CWB Director Jim Chatenay is sympathetic to the plight of organic farmers.
“Unfortunately, the money paid by organic farmers to the CWB, didn’t
even help any wheat farmers last crop year, because we ran a deficit in
the pool accounts. Essentially, the organic money only helped
Canadian taxpayers.”
The Canadian Government guarantees that when the CWB sells for less than
initial and interim prices to farmers, the government will pick up the
deficit in the pool accounts.
Wheat prices were good in the fall of 2002 and the crop was small.
The CWB stopped selling in September and their expert marketing analyst
Peter Watts boasted “The crop is so small in Western Canada compared to
usual that the wheat board is in the driver’s seat in terms of where we
market the grain, when we market the grain , and what price level we
market the grain.”
However, the buoyant prices were short lived and prices dropped in the
winter and the CWB was selling for less than the interim price they and
the federal government had jacked up during the CWB fall elections.
This created a pool deficit, of which $85 million dollars was picked
up by taxpayers, along with the comparatively small amount extorted from
organic farmers. Fortunately for the taxpayers, it was an extremely
small crop.
OSPG member, John Husband adds, “But actually, not all organic money
reaches the pool accounts. The CWB hires a non-marketing Organic
Marketing Manager, specifically to handle organic-related affairs in the
CWB, at organic farmers expense. So, although no farmers received
any benefits, there were benefits from the organic money within the CWB
itself.” |
