WHY
YOU SHOULD CARE...
What is the Canadian Wheat Board?
The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is a
farmer-controlled organization that markets wheat and barley grown by
western Canadian producers. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the CWB
is
the largest single seller of wheat and barley in the world, holding
more than 20 per cent of the international market.
As every respected
farm economist who has studied it has affirmed, the Canadian Wheat
Board is a well-designed and sustainable policy mechanism that delivers
price equity to Canadian grain growers - equity that amounts to over
$800 million a year in benefits to Prairie communities.It is also
overwhelmingly supported by Canada's grain growers.
BILL
C-300
This fall, Bill C-300, An Act to Amend the Canadian Wheat Board
Act, will come before the House of Commons for Second Reading.
Under
the banner of “freedom of choice”, this Bill, if passed, will destroy
the one desk selling structure of the Canadian Wheat Board, the only
thing standing between prairie grain farmers and the market power of
the highly concentrated transnational grain sector.
American grain interests have been gunning for the CWB
for over 20 years. Canada has won every trade
challenge. We should
be touting the CWB model for farmers in other countries to
emulate.
Instead, Bill C-300 would wipe it off the table, and with it, the
future of Canadian agriculture.
Seemingly innocuous, Bill C-300 purports to simply
offer growers “choice” in the marketing of their wheat.
When
introduced in the House, it will be couched in terms such as “grower
choice” and “support for bio-fuels development”. Make no
mistake.
Bill C-300 will destroy the single desk selling authority of the
Canadian Wheat Board, opening the door to take-over of Canada's grain
sector by powerful, transnational grain conglomerates.
What
this is and isn't about.
This issue is not about debating the merits of the
CWB. Surely
we must be able to agree that farmers in a given commodity sector know
what is working best for their sector.
The Canadian Wheat Board has withstood challenges under
both the WTO and NAFTA and has emerged intact. Despite
this, Ottawa
is poised to destroy it, placing Canada’s grain sector in the hands of
US based transnationals...
Ottawa
is prepared to act in contravention of CWB Act
Section 47.1 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act expressly forbids
the Minister to change the act without a prior referendum in support of
such changes by the growers.
Chuck Strahl and his new government says that doesn't
matter. It does to farmers. It does to this Agrologist.
Implications
for Supply Management
If this can happen to the Canadian Wheat Board, it can happen to
supply management.
Destroying the independence and sustainability of
Canada’s grain, dairy, poultry and egg farmers will destroy the fabric
of Canada's farm sector, and with it all hope of food security and food
sovereignty.
HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Send an email to your MP** telling them you support the
rights of western Canada's grain farmers to uphold the market
protection afforded by the Canadian Whet Board's single desk sales
authority, and refer them to this web site
http://www.theholmteam.ca/CWB.html
2. Copy it to MP Chuck Strahl at
Strahl.C@parl.gc.ca
3. Copy it also to Stephen Harper at
Harper.S@parl.gc.ca
Its time for the farm community to stand together, flex a few muscles
and tell these newcomers in Ottawa that a government that doesn’t
respect the rights of Canada’s farmers does not have the support of
Canada’s communities. Call your MP. Demand respect
for farmers. This is the hill to take or die on. It
is about Canada.
Take the time to send an email Please.
Wendy
** Don't know your MP's email? Get it at
http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca
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