Category Archives: Arguments

One of the arguments used by monopolists is that the CWB couldn’t possibly compete without a substantial amount of physical assets (bricks and mortar) that it just doesn’t have right now.  What these people continually fail to mention is that many grain trading companies operate successfully without any assets whatsoever. Cargill for instance did it for 50 years in Canada before they bought anything. Toepfer is one of the most successful trading companies in the world, its actually one of the CWB’s accredited exporters and it doesn’t have any physical assets in Canada yet manages to sell a whole pile of board grains.

CWB: In an open market the miller would contact grain companies A, B and C, specify the grain they’re looking for, and then compare the offers and select the lowest price. Continue reading →

Rolf -“Some believe the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) should remain the sole Canadian buyer of malting and export barley. Others think it shouldn’t exist at all. Voting for a policy that includes the CWB as a voluntary marketing option takes the broadest view, and gives producers the greatest flexibility and control over their businesses.

More competition for barley means buyers (including the CWB) will have to keep a lid on costs as they work hard to get you the largest margins possible. Growers of malt barley stand to benefit the most from increased flexibility [. . . .]”

CWB-More competition for farmers’ grain between handling companies in Western Canada may mean lower system costs, but will certainly mean lower selling prices as merchandisers compete for customers’ business. Continue reading →

Lorne Gunter, The Edmonton Journal,  Sunday, May 28 2006

Last week, federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl suggested there was increasing support for taking away the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly over prairie wheat and barley sales, for letting grain growers choose whether to sell their grain to the federal government first or try to sell it themselves directly to processors and millers.(more)

“Casting a vote to give someone power does not make a man free; freedom is the knowledge that even if one doesn’t perform that ritual, nobody can exercise power over one’s life, liberty, and property.”

~ILANA MERCER

Rolf Penner- Voting for a choice candidate is an excellent way to be a good neighbor. And who doesn’t want to be a good neighbor? Your neighbor needs your help here in the same way he or she does when they run off the road in the  middle of winter or after a four inch rain. They’re stuck in a marketing system that keeps delivering below average prices and zero flexibility when it comes to shipping that grain. By voting for choice, for change, you can help get your neighbors back on the road and behind the wheel of their own marketing plan, one that they themselves are in control of.

Be a good neighbor, give your fellow farmers a choice. Set them free! 

Rolf Penner- I believe first and foremost that your grain belongs to you.

Not to your neighbors, not to the CWB, and not to any elected official of any kind.

It is your land, your inputs, and your hard work that created that grain and I promise to never forget that. I will do my utmost to turn the Canadian Wheat board into a voluntary organization that you can either choose to do business with or not. That is a choice that is best left in the hands of individual producers such as yourself and no one else. You have more than earned the right to sell the grain that you produce to whomever you want.

SIDNEY GREEN,  October 17, 2006, Winnipeg Free Press 

IF the CEO of Manitoba Public Insurance started a campaign using the company funds urging the privatization of the corporation, this fact would not go unnoticed by the minister to whom the insurance company reports.

If the CEO of Manitoba Hydro started a campaign to privatize the Crown corporation and used its treasury to publicize his position, this fact would not go unnoticed by the minister to whom Hydro reported. In these cases, do you think that the ministers involved would use whatever power they had available to stop these executives? (more)

The Contingency Fund is something that needs to be talked more about – particularly in this directors’ election.

Originally established in conjunction with the Producer Pricing Options, the Fund was meant to make the PPOs self-sustaining, with no risk to the pool accounts.  PPO program gains and losses would flow into and out of the Fund, leaving the pools intact.

However, since it’s inception, the Fund has received over $17 million from the pool accounts.  So far, this has countered the total losses in the PPO programs of $11 million, including $40 million lost in the 06-07 crop year. Continue reading →

October 24, 2006              The Chair (Gerry Ritz, MP, Battlefords-Lloydminster):

Thank you, Monsieur Lebeau.

Mr. Penner.
Mr. Rolf Penner:

Good afternoon to you, committee members. Thank you all for inviting me here to share my thoughts with you on the Canadian Wheat Board. I’d like to start by saying that I’m here not only as the agricultural policy research fellow for the Frontier Centre but, more importantly, as a farmer from southern Manitoba who’s running 1,700 acres of land and whose primary source of income is that farm. Continue reading →

“One of the key claims made in support of a single-desk selling structure is based on the ability to exert market power within a given marketplace.

Of the 91 countries to which Canada exported non-durum wheat, only Ecuador potentially exhibited characteristics suggesting that Canada has sufficient market power to leverage prices.

Among the 41 countries to which Canada exported durum, market influence by Canada could potentially be exercised in six.

The analysis indicates that Canada does not hold sufficient market power in any of the 20 markets to which it has exported barley during the period under examination. “

-source: Informa

According to the June 2008 CWB survey   

57 % of Western farmers favour either a dual market or an open market over the single desk for wheat.

In Manitoba it was 58%   Continue reading →