The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Since the Conservatives came to office, their plan for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has been plain and simple. They want it gone. But killing the CWB has been a slow process. The Conservatives are the only national party that wants the Board dismantled, but making that happen requires an act of Parliament. It is three parties against one, and in a minority Parliament, the House of Commons math is against them. Instead, the Harper government has tried to kill the Wheat Board by death of a thousand cuts. It has tried to alter the BoardÕs mandate through regulation changes (an attempt overruled by two federal courts), issued gag orders against Board executives (again overturned by the courts), and even tried to rig farmer plebiscites on barley marketing. Then, last week, the latest cut. This one aimed at the CWBÕs pocketbook. Last Friday, the international credit rating agency Standard & PoorÕs (S & P) downgraded the CWBÕs credit rating to a double A. This was the second downgrade in less than two years. In January 2007, S & P dropped the CWBÕs credit rating from a triple A rating to double A-plus. Both times, the agency cited the efforts of the Conservative government to undermine the CWB as the primary reason for the reduction. In fact, says S & PÕs own report, Òwe donÕt expect that the level of federal government support for CWBÕs public policy role will recover in the near term.Ó What western grain farmers are faced with is a political party with an agenda of destroying the CWB regardless of the consequences. The CWBÕs credit standing is very much at risk. ThereÕs real concern that the Harper government could remove the guarantee on CWB borrowings. All of this has a direct impact on grain farmers, but none of this seems of any concern to the Harper government. The Conservatives have been relentless. They have demonstrated a willingness to undermine the CWB, to threaten and fire board directors and to gag the CWB from doing its job on behalf of farmers. The impact of these unethical efforts has imposed direct negative costs on farmers. But those costs do not seem to concern the Harper government. It seems much more concerned about its ideological goals than respect for farmers. Wayne Easter is the Official Opposition Critic for Agriculture.
