Chamber Backs Choice for
Farmers
(September 24, 2004 - CP) Prairie farmers should have the right
to opt out of the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
said Monday during its annual meeting in Calgary.
As one of its policy resolutions for the year, the chamber said the wheat
board monopoly creates a system in which western farmers earn
significantly less than farmers in Central or Eastern Canada growing the
same crop.
"It extracts a price premium for domestic processors of wheat and
barley, resulting in a complex regulated system that increases costs,
reduces competitiveness and creates a disincentive to value-added
investment," the chamber said in a statement.
Chamber president Nancy Hughes Anthony said the resolution caused a lot
of debate.
"What we are asking for is not to abolish the wheat board,"
said Hughes Anthony.
"It is to allow farmers who wish - on a pilot project, opt-out
basis - to take advantage of business opportunities."
She added that many western members of the Chamber of Commerce
"see it as a value-added issue that is larger than just
farmers."
The Winnipeg-headquartered wheat board buys most wheat and barley from
Prairie farmers at a price fixed by the federal government.
The wheat board originally forced farmers to accept the pool price, an
average of overall sales, paid out at the end of the crop year. But
in recent years it has given them some choices, such as arranging for
contracts through the main grain exchange in Minneapolis.
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