Blackie farmer Leroy Newman checks on his barley crop on Tuesday morning. Newman is one of many local farmers who is disappointed with the federal court decision to overturn the results of a plebiscite on the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on marketing barley. photo by Blair Braitenbach

Barley farmers outraged with court decision

By Blair Braitenbach
Staff reporter

For many barley farmers, last Wednesday was a dark day after learning a federal court judge overturned the Conservative government’s decision to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s (CWB) monopoly on barley marketing.
Since the decision last Wednesday, the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Inc. reported a $0.70 per bushel price reduction in barley, a decrease by over $30 per tonne. Overall, lost profits to farmers are estimated in the millions of dollars.
Highwood MLA and provincial Minister of Agriculture and Food George Groeneveld expressed his disappointment with the federal court’s decision. Although Liberals are stating that Aug. 1 was a great day for democracy, Groeneveld disagreed and now questions what the CWB is going to do for those losing out on potential increased profits by having the option to market their barley to the highest bidder.
“It’s a pretty black day for what 78 per cent of Alberta farmers voted to go the other direction (of the barley monopoly),” Groeneveld said.
“We are in a rising grain market, but to have this drop the limit virtually two days in a row is quite shocking and is a direct result of what happened with that decision.”
It was a heated debate for barley farmers throughout the west, but after a barley plebiscite last March by more than 29,000 farmers, the results showed that 62.2 per cent of western farmers (and 78 per cent in Alberta alone) were in favour of ending the CWB monopoly on barley marketing.
The Conservative party intended to rid the CWB’s barley monopoly through an Order in Council
However, the Liberal opposition took the decision to the federal court arguing the CWB Act can’t be changed through regulation, that it must be changed by open debate in the Parliament and the House of Commons. Justice Dolores Hansen of the Federal Court agreed with the Liberals.
Mcleod MP Ted Menzies agreed with Groeneveld. In a written statement he said the battle may be lost for marketing freedom, but the war will continue as Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl will look into the federal court decision and consider the next step.
“I know many farmers across Alberta, and the rest of the producers monopolized by the Canadian Wheat Board have been asking for and expecting market freedom, but this decision has disrupted their plans for this crop season and future seasons,” Menzies said.
Provincial Liberal energy and agriculture critic and Edmonton-Gold Bar MLA Hugh MacDonald said the fluctuations in the barley prices won’t be very dramatic. MacDonald said the true importance of the federal court decision is that the CWB Act was not changed by regulation because he believes the role of the CWB should be discussed in the House of Commons.
“Let’s follow the words and wisdom of the justice and have this discussed on the floor of the House of Commons where it should be, it’s a federal statute,” MacDonald said.
“If you’re going to change the statute, introduce an amendment and give all elected MPs who are to participate in the debate an opportunity to do so. If farmers aren’t satisfied with the discussion or debate or arguments that are presented by their MPs, they can vote for another one.”
Despite MacDonald’s assertions that justice has been done, Groeneveld said barley producers are the real losers to what many consider a dinosaur wheat board.
“I can understand Mr. MacDonald stating this is democracy. But he and I have a very opposite opinion of what democracy is and I think democracy did not work in this case. I commend Minister Strahl for proceeding the way he did with the plebiscite,” Groeneveld said, adding that the CWB Act was originally implemented through regulation and that it should be removed the same way.
Leroy Newman, a barley farmer from the Blackie area, is one individual who adamantly opposes the CWB monopoly of barley. Anticipating an end to the monopoly, Newman said many farmers had made private deals with malt companies. Now that the federal court has overturned the Conservative government’s decision to end the monopoly, Newman said those individuals are going to be left high and dry as their contracts with the malt companies are now “null and void.”
“I have friends who are just wild because they sold their crops at the highest price and now the malt companies can’t honour it,” Newman said.
Without assets and not retaining any profits, CWB officials argued without the barley monopoly they would be at the mercy of other corporations to distribute their product, which they said would destroy the board. Newman has little sympathy for this argument.
“(The CWB) never really made an effort to be competitive,” Newman said.
James Chatenay, CWB District 2 director (which covers the area in and around the foothills), also opposes the recent federal court decision although half of his CWB directors are in favour of the monopoly. Chatenay spent 23 days in jail in 2002 for refusing to pay a $4,000 fine after taking a bushel of wheat over the U.S. border in 1996 in protest of the CWB’s monopoly on wheat and barley. Chatenay said the CWB has served its purpose and it’s time for the members to “step out of the box” and accept change.
“I represent a lot of people who are well informed,” Chatenay said. “They’re young farmers, they’re big farmers, they have a laptop on their combines, Blackberries in their pockets, and to have a guy…make all their marketing decisions is a little bit outdated to say the least.
“The best thing they (the CWB) can do is to get out of the way,” Chatenay said, adding that he believes the CWB is primarily concerned if they lose the barley monopoly then the next logical thing to happen would be to lose the wheat monopoly.