And why won’t he deliver his durum?
The [Canadian Wheat Board] is scrambling for high quality durum right now. Partly because of the late fall and partly because of the poor quality crop. […] These struggles are showing up in Vancouver. On a vessel that the CWB shared with Cargill, the CWB loaded 10,800 tonnes of durum and Cargill loaded 14,700 tonnes of canola. Cargill loaded the canola in about two days and the CWB took another 21 days to load the durum….
How’s durum crop this year?
I’ve thought it should have been exceptional.
21 days . . . speed of light for a government funded/organized group.
note to CWB – larger quantities of durum are available, if you offer a higher price.
That’s quite a marketing strategy. Threaten your suppliers with even lower prices if they don’t accept the already sh!tty offering. Those folks at the CWB been licking the treated seeds again?
…and why should John Galt care?
Go John Galt! Down with the Wheat Board.
Of all the anachronistic Canadian institutions you would think the Conservatives could at least get rid of the CWB. If not, they are truly mere caretakers of the Liberal establishment. Its such fertile ground, the: CBC, CRTC, Long Gun Registry, Via Rail, DFO, CWS, CFS, CHRC……..
Does anyone grow wheat anymore?? On my drives between Calgary and Regina, twice a year for family events, I see lots of Canola, lots of mustard, lots of soy crops, lots of hay, but no wheat. Am I in the wrong part of the country, or are the young, savvy producers just growing what they can sell for a good profit??
Any trip to a lefty blog makes me feel unclean somehow!It reminds me of a bad Acid trip from misspent youth.
I don’t condone the CWB, nor would I knock it too bad, it did serve a purpose in it’s day. A Wheat Board would work well if it was controlled by farmers, and was operated for the benefit of the shareholders. Why anyone wants the government at the helm is hard to figure out.
Meanwhile…
At the other end of the country…
The good memeber of parliament for Malpeque PEI, Wayne Easter, Liberal ag. critic, stands on his soapbox and chirps about the wonderful virtues of the CWB.
The CWB is an absolute disgrace in a country whose Prime Ministers, Supreme Court judges and other govt figures go around the world lecturing other countries on the benefits of democracy.
Why don’t the western provinces just declare wheat and barley ‘natural resources’ and take the control away from the federal govt’s continuing criminal interference in the grain markets?
Huge sums of money are being stolen from western farmers and given away to friends of the CWB, both internally and externally.
What a crying shame!
And a tip of the hat to John Depape for his fine informed commentary.
The Federal Government is the enforcer of the CWB Act, yet it seems that when they tried to make productive changes to the act they were met by a socialist firewall. We have a phony baloney group of Directors that are supposedly elected by farmers. I see plenty of retired farmers driving with farm plates because they keep a Permit Book on one quarter section. That gives them a vote that is equal to an active farmer that is really producing the product. This makes the issue ideology versus practicality. The 30’s are long gone, its time to move on.
“Why don’t the western provinces just declare wheat and barley ‘natural resources’ and take the control away from the federal govt’s continuing criminal interference in the grain markets?”
They are NOT natural resources. Neither level of government owns the wheat and barley grown by the individual farmer. Those crops belong to the farmer.
The CWB Act should be repealed. The Board itself should be privatized. It would have to compete with Cargill and other crop marketers on a level playing field.
Hermit is right, the 30’s are long gone – as evidenced by the 80 year old trees along property lines all over Alberta, preventing future Dust Bowls.
Oh BS Ed.
The minute you combine the grain, it is in fact the property of the federal govt because you cannot do what you want with it, without their permission.
Your way of change hasn’t worked since 1946 so its time to think outside the box the feds have put you in.
A simple law makes it their grain.
A simple law by the provinces declaring it their grain would bring this entire stupid frigging soap opera to a Supreme Court decision, in favor of the farmers.
That is, if the skirt running the SCoC has updated herself on the Magna Carta.