By Colin Budd
More than 60 per cent of wheat growers are in favour of retaining the single desk marketing system.
The Canadian Wheat Board released the results of their producer plebiscite on Monday morning with over 38,000 farmers mailing in ballots.
Sixty-two per cent of respondents voted in favour of keeping the current system for wheat, while 51 per cent voted to retain it for barley.
“Their message is loud and clear and cannot be ignored,” said CWB chairman Allen Oberg, during a media conference call on Monday morning. “They voted in overwhelming numbers to retain a unique and valuable marketing structure.”
Accounting firm MNP said 56 per cent of producers eligible to cast a ballot did so.
“Our plebiscite was a fair and honest process, and it was designed to give farmers a say in this monumental decision that will profoundly affect their operations,” said Oberg.
Late last week, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz released a statement reiterating that regardless of the results, Canadian producers were going to have the right to choose how they market their own grain.
“Canadian farmers feed the world and they deserve the freedom to make their own business decisions,” he said. “No expensive survey can trump the individual right of farmers to market their own grain. Our government is committed to giving Western Canadian grain farmers the marketing freedom they want and deserve.”
The federal government has targeted August 2012 to change the current marketing system.
“This Canadian government is out of touch with farmers,” said Oberg. “For months now, Minister Ritz has been telling us that the federal election gave him all the mandate he needs to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board. But now, we know otherwise, there is no mandate from farmers to strip away their marketing power and hand it over to private companies.”
There are legal issues either currently before the courts or could happen down the road, said Oberg, depending on the federal government’s reaction to the results of the plebiscite, which was not legally binding.
“We intend to stand our ground and uphold farmers’ decision. We’re calling on Minster Ritz to respect this decision,” said Oberg. “I’d be taking my lead from farmers and listening to farmers. We’re going to table these results in parliament and put as much political pressure as possible as we can on this government that they listen to what the majority of farmers have said and retain the advantages of that single desk structure.”
Barley vote close
While 62 per cent of wheat growers voted in favour of keeping the single desk system, the slimmest of majorities – 51 per cent – of the barley growers did the same. While Oberg said they will respect that more are in favour of retaining the CWB, he said they will have to look at what is being offered.
“We’re going to take a look at the programs we currently offer and see if some of them can be revised to offer as much flexibility as possible that would be available on the open market. I think that’s going to be our next step when it comes to the barley issue.”