District #2 CWB Director Chatenay Asks for Answers

(July 10, 2002 - FFJ)    Alberta’s CWB Director Jim Chatenay has submitted  a list of detailed questions to the CWB on behalf of the farmers who elected him to promote marketing choice for Prairie farmers.  The questions are detailed and mainly deal with pooling account
monies.

"There are a lot of business-minded farmers in District #2 wanting to bring the CWB to a new level of openness and accountability, ” states Chatenay who farms at Red Deer, Alberta, “For the years I’ve served as a Director, farmers across the designated area have been questioning the efficiency, transparency and accountability of the Canadian Wheat Board, and that's a good thing if farmers take an active interest in what’s going on at the  Board.  The twenty-one probing questions come from the farming community and are a District #2 initiative.”

Chatenay continues, “Only when detailed, accurate and complete financial information is made available to farmers will they be able to make informed decisions on the many controversial issues that arise concerning the monopoly that they are required to
be a part of.”

District #2  farmer Ron Duffy, Lacombe, Alberta, and part of the Chatenay team says,  “Many of our questions are related to the recommendations of areas for improvement made by the Auditor General.”  The Auditor General’s report stated: “To improve accountability and transparency, the CWB should provide details in its financial statements of all the significant revenues and costs associated with its' operation of pool accounts.”

“In a nutshell, we want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” concludes Duffy, “Our questions may be CWB sensitive but they are not market sensitive so we expect answers.”

Jim Chatenay is one of the original directors of the CWB.   Based on his marketing choice for farmers’ advocacy,  he was re-elected for a four year term in 2000 with the highest majority of any director.

For further information or for the List of Questions and background information contact:

Lynda Swanson                Ron Duffy                            Colleen Bianchi
(403) 773-2467               (403) 885-5190                  (403) 344-4472
lswanson@rttinc.com                                                     stb@telusplanet.net