An Open Letter
to the Honorable Ralph Goodale, Minister
Responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board

Dear Mr. Goodale:

If you’ve got a combine with a super pickup that gathers in all the grain, threshes it out of the heads with a well-adjusted cylinder, puts the grain across the straw walkers and down through the sieves, and then spreads it back on the fields, you’d probably get rid of that combine very quickly. Why then do we put up with a political system when it does about the same thing?

The government puts in place a collection system such as the Grain Marketing Panel or any other such commission, gathers all the information, threshes it all out, sifts through all the information and then--get this--essentially destroys the whole effort by not keeping the grains of wisdom gathered. It tosses them out.

What’s my point? Many good ideas have been picked up from farmers, good ideas that could be used to effectively improve the marketing of grain by producers. But they are discarded by the government without a chance of being implemented.

A farmer’s forum was held in Yorkton on January 22nd, and a non-partisan crowd of about 300 producers gave overwhelming support to my amendments to Bill C-4--amendments that both sides of the CWB debate think are desirable even though their first choice is to scrap the bill altogether.

But what happened? The day before the Yorkton forum you, Mr. Goodale, held a meeting to determine a way of electing Directors to the Board as proposed in Bill C-4.

Why is that significant? It sends a message to everyone that C-4 is a done deal, that all the debate in Parliament won’t make a difference, and any amendments or suggestions farmers have will be simply discarded--spread back where they came from. Mr. Goodale, by your actions, you have thumbed your nose at democracy, Parliament and the wishes of most, if not all, producers.

We have just witnessed the government combine going through the prairies for the past few years, collecting all the useful suggestions, but in the end, it’s all flushed away--just like the broken combine did with the wheat. It’s time to get rid of the undemocratic aspects of our broken parliamentary combine. Not allowing citizens and their representatives to have meaningful input into the laws we all have to live by is making people very cynical.

Mr. Goodale, I respectfully request that you ask farmers what they think of my amendments before unilaterally discarding them and forcing backbench Liberal MPs to vote against them. Here is the essence of what I propose with my amendments:

• To change the purpose of the CWB from orderly marketing to "securing the best financial return for producers." (96% support)
• To allow producers to voluntarily exclude one or more types of grains from CWB control for a minimum of five years. (83% support)
• To allow the Auditor-General of Canada to examine the CWB to see if it’s meeting its objective and if not, after five years a sunset clause would kick in repealing the CWB Act. (86% support)

I think it’s instructive that these amendments have much higher level of support than Bill C-4. Isn’t it time to listen to the farmers who want these amendments? Isn’t it time to start listening to farmers who want you to scrap C-4 and start over?

Sincerely,

Garry Breitkreuz, M.P.
Yorkton-Melville