They refused to adapt. They deserve to die.
The proposed law would eliminate 10 elected positions from the board of directors, leaving government appointees. Those five appointees will be in charge of producing a business plan to privatize the board by 2016, with the minister of agriculture to decide whether it’s viable.
If the agriculture minister decides the plan isn’t viable, the government can permanently shut down the Wheat Board.
Note: the CBC has a poll….
About time. Dismantling the socialist state is a long process…lets not replace it with corporate cronyism and regulatory capture. Everything needs to sink or swim on it’s own merits.
Property rights, to one’s own skills and labour included, would be a good next step.
Bravo Kate! Thanks for your part in keeping the pressure on.
The initial purpose of the CWB was to keep grain prices down during WWII. Later on, a secondary purpose was to keep a glut of grain within Canada to keep input prices down for cattle and hog feeders. Export too much at too good a price and it would destroy feedlots.
Eureka, finally…Stalinism take a blow. When I told the fellow who rents our land that this would be tabled today he said “Good news”.
Now if only the Matvie Berman wannabes among the “occupiers” could be encouraged to go to Venezuela.
…a secondary purpose was to keep a glut of grain within Canada to keep input prices down for cattle and hog feeders.
That could be amended to “feeders in the East”.
I still don’t understand why the CWB hasn’t ever demanded that Ontario and Quebec also fall under the regulations… Oh, wait…
Harper better have this done before the next election, and not 2016 as suggested. Is he losing his juice?
Does anyone know if the Auditor-General ever done an in-depth audit of the CWB and published the results?
CURRENT POLL NUMBERS:
Should the CWB lose it’s monopoly?
Yes 446/51.32%
No 370/42.58%
Not sure 53/6.1%
I note also the CWB’s spokesman’s use of the Ultimate Bogeyman, those Damned Yankees!
“Allen Oberg, chair of the wheat board’s farmer-elected board of directors, said that in a time of economic instability the federal government is jeopardizing $5 billion in exports and forcing grain farmers into an open market without the board’s protection.
“For no other reason beyond an ideological crusade, this government will hand the Americans what they want on a silver platter and get nothing in return,” Oberg told reporters in Winnipeg.”
Get that? Restoring farmers’ rights and Free Enterprise is “jeopardizing” grain exports. The ultimate Canadian Darth Vader, those nameless, faceless Yanks are the soon-to-profiteer villains. If anyone buys that, I’ve got a great deal on Arizona beach front real estate for you.
Oh no! they’re on to this dastardly blog site.
Comments:”When I saw the results of the poll that is above on this page I said to myself, I would bet the Far Right will be posting about the poll through their underground media and blog sites. Sure enough, the first one I checked, there it was right at the top of the first page.
There is something very perverse about the CBC holding any kind of a vote on an institution that only exists in Western Canada. I think 98% of their audience is in the GTA.
They should have cut a wire inside the teleprompter and laugh as “The Great One” tried to wing it.
Sorry – was trying to post a comment on the Obama thread.
This is part of one of the comments that the cbc allowed. Someone that goes by ‘Cayyce’ wrote it up.
” A majority of them apparently can’t reconcile their vitriolic hatred of homosexuals and aboriginal people with their dependence on the Wheat Board for their livelihood.”
WOW.
It is dangerous to leave this to fester for five years. A lot can happen in five years, including the defeat of the Conservative government.
There are plenty of people who deserve credit for this happening – SDA was one of many who kept the pressure on.
And for the love of Allah can we at least call the wheat board what it was/is – its a monopsony – not a monopoly.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony
Even the CBC can’t get it right.
Whaddya mean “…even the CBC,” Gord? 😉
poll question-Should the Canadian wheat board lose its monopoly?
That there is a trick question because the CWB does not in fact have a monopoly if eastern wheat farmers are not compelled to sell through the CWB.
You should see the eastern comments on this story at the G&M or Mop&Pail. The lefties are foamed up and frothed up and lathered up like the Lone Ranger had rode them all night and put them up wet. Or better yet the Ukrainians had stopped Stalin at the border and the Ukrainians did not have their granaries swept out by the Commies.
@ RFB:
Yeah, the whole Tymoshenko 7 year prison sentence was just another pile of trumped up rubbish.
Free the Ukranian farmers from the CWB!!!
Borscht and vodka served at the party…
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
I just voted and the current results are 58.59 % say no more monopoly for these commie scumbags at CWB.
HAHAHA
There is much weeping & gnashing of teeth today at the CWB.
It looks like a good fit after years of misuse & abuse of power. Not to mention the corruption & theft of Farmers income.
“Allen Oberg, chair of the wheat board’s farmer-elected board of directors, said that in a time of economic instability the federal government is jeopardizing $5 billion in exports and forcing grain farmers into an open market without the board’s protection.
“For no other reason beyond an ideological crusade, this government will hand the Americans what they want on a silver platter and get nothing in return,” Oberg told reporters in Winnipeg.”
Oberg’s claim will almost certainly be seen, in hindsight, as arising from – at best- pure ignorance. Western cereal farmers will now be able to use the most efficient and sophisticated marketing approaches for their crop, the same ones American farmers enjoy. This will make them more competitive vs. US farmers, not less.
I remember seeing a W5 news story on a farmer who was threatened with arrest if he tried to go to North Dakota with a truck load of grain. Now this going to stop, and that is the way of freedom.
I just voted and the current results @1452hrs AB Tm
Yes. 59.46% (1,238 votes)
No. 35.21% (733 votes)
I’m not sure. 5.33% (111 votes)
Total Votes: 2,082
Does this mean the CWB won’t be getting their boats?
This is “Change” , “Change they can believe in” so what’s the problem?
Maybe Ritz should reconsider – we could keep the CWB for the next 50 years but make a change so that it only applies for Ont. and Que. Then we could revisit and see whether we do away with it or not.
Then would can go after things like the Chicken, Egg, Turkey, and Dairy Marketing Boards that protect select multi-millionaires from consumer forces.
As a person who farmed for 20 years under the auspicity of having to market my wheat and malt barley under this socialist organization, it is finally a banner day. The modern farmer is a very astute business man who wants to be able to market his grain as he see fits; as he does with his canola, flax, mustard, canary seed and pulse crops.
One of the main drawbacks of the CWB was its inability to try and allow producers to develop processing of wheat and barley, and market that processed product. A complicated buyback program was the only way a farmer could sell direct to any existing procesing plant.Crops like Canola are heads above for developing processing plants in the backyard of where the crop is produced. Processing of wheat and malt barley should ramp up in the next few years.
One of the main reasons it stayed alive was the cash advance program that was used to borrow money against your stored grain.That will have to change. This may be hard on some producers as this money was used to pay inputs. A little business acumen should help to adjust to this change.
What will happen to the people at the CWB? Obviously the people that are employed by the wheat board have enormous contact and marketing knowledge that would be useful in a new entity or to an existing entity already in business. These people will not go unemployed.
It is high time this change took place and that the businees of wheat and malt barley marketing can finally move into the 20th century
I mean 21st century
Freudian slip?
A few years ago I attended the Canadian International Grains Institute in Winnipeg.At this institute we attended various seminars.One was with reps. of the CWB. At that time I asked them if they ever hired salesmen from other grain selling agencies to which they replied,no,they didnt have the right philosophical outlook.I then asked if any wheat board salesmen were ever hired by other grain selling agencies to which the answer was no.So much for expertise in the grain marketing business.
As of 5:15 pm PDT, the votes were:
Yes. 61.19% (1,608 votes)
No. 34.06% (895 votes)
I’m not sure. 4.76% (125 votes)
Total Votes: 2,628
So, is the milk marketing monopoly, next Gerry?
Oh. That’s different, eh?
If the agriculture minister decides the plan isn’t viable, the government can permanently shut down the wheat board.
Just finish it already. Waiting until 2016 and possibly not killing it then shows that this government is overconfident. I’d also happier if the government wasn’t shoveling about 15 million dollars to the region for some stupid “investment”, even if it’s a small price to pay to end the CWB.
The continued silence regarding Supply Management should put an end to any delusions that the CPC has principle. This is calculated red meat that’s all.
“CPC”.
Is the CPC extant?
It’s last Comrade Commissar was Tim Buck who also founded Friends of Canadian Wheat Board, which evolved into Friends of CBC.
H/T PET Cemetery/Kossior Div.
Yeh just watch Ritz`s ass pucker up when somebody suggests that the other marketing boards should be gone as well. The great free trader stutters out the same old leftist sh%t about striking the right balance of protecting Canadian supply management while opening up new markets abroad.What a tit.
Regarding the supply management sectors and their quota system; that system was originally set up by farmers as a means of having orderly domestic marketings. The cattle and hog industries had opportunities to have a go at a quota based industry but declined such through a vote. I don’t recall where the CWB was set up by farmers for farmers. A small historical difference.
One country.One set of rules for everyone. It’s that simple.
The government once passed a bill to create the wheat board, so it can pass legislation to get rid of it. It doesn’t need to fiddle around with the composition of the board of directors. Sell off the assets ASAP, rather than asking it to come up with a business plan to “privatize” itself. The biggest problem is the coercive monopsony, not whether the board is private or not.
As has been often noted Ontario wheat farmers have had ‘choice’ for some time now. It meant that the Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board, established by the farmers, controlled by the farmers and eventually stripped of single desk selling by the farmers, had to lose a significant amount of bureaucracy when choice was introduced. It is a rather nice feeling to have the option of growing wheat and selecting the means to sell it. The CWB is all about control from this eastern perspective. Sharpen an oak stake for the beast.
Kate
Thatnks for keeping this issue alive. Free at last.
The cash advance system has nothing to do with the single desk. Its administration has already been handed over to the canola commision and it will be business as usual
Regarding the supply management sectors and their quota system; that system was originally set up by farmers as a means of having orderly domestic marketings. The cattle and hog industries had opportunities to have a go at a quota based industry but declined such through a vote. I don’t recall where the CWB was set up by farmers for farmers. A small historical difference.
Posted by: farmerboy at October 18, 2011 11:06 PM
Kind of like saying a tyrannical monopoly is okay – provided it was dreamed up by farmers instead of a government…is that it?
Tell that to anyone who values freedom and wants other options.
Anyone is eligible to purchase quota and enter into supply managed industries. Certainly the system has faults. However the American model, especially in the feather industries, has much to complain about as well.
Anyone is eligible to purchase quota and enter into supply managed industries. Certainly the system has faults. However the American model, especially in the feather industries, has much to complain about as well.
Posted by: farmerboy at October 19, 2011 6:46 PM
‘Eligible’? Is that newspeak?
How about “compelled”?
hey farmerboy, read your recent history – CWB was set up in WWII by Loony Liberal M.King to ensure cheap wheat to Europe – punish the Western Canadian farmers when they finally got some decent crops (in the 30’s there was no grain in the Canadian West – just dirt)). Turdo sent shiploads of CWB wheat to the Soviet Union; most of it rotted in the port – too good for Papa Stalin to feed to his peons.
I am wondering about the ships the CWB purchased on behalf of Western farmers – 60 million dollars- it should come out of the sale of assets, IMO and given back to the farmers who were forced to give these weasles their money.
Thank-you Kate and all SDA commenters and posters for keeping this on top of the Conservative ‘must do’ list.
I cheering for and with my Dad, who died in 2002(Dad is cheering from Heaven) – he hated the CWB and would be celebrating in a very big way if he had lived to see the day that the CWB died.
No one should ever have to “purchase quota” before he enters into a business undertaking.