The board holds farmers’ grain and money in trust for them. It is not Mr. Oberg’s or the CWB’s money to do with as they please. To spend it in this way is an abuse of trust, an abuse of power, and goes well beyond the board’s mandate of marketing grain.
Others have pointed out farmers have not been consulted about this purchase. Many feel blindsided by the announcement, and rightly so. In the recent wheat board director elections, for instance, none of the incumbent directors campaigned on the issue of buying ships, even though they had to have known about the plan to purchase them.
[…]
Federal wheat board minister Gerry Ritz was clearly not happy with this decision. When asked about it in question period, his response was, “I have constantly told the wheat board that farmers’ money in the pool accounts is off-limits to it. It should not be misappropriated like this.” But we have yet to hear what the minister responsible for the CWB intends to do about this misappropriation of growers’ funds. To do nothing should not be an option.
Previous: An Adrian Measner connection.
Holy smokes. I just read up on what the Canadian Wheat Board is.
No wonder the western provinces can’t stand Ontario and Quebec. And now the gubmint is going to take their money to buy a couple of ships? Why? Were they out of magic beans at the market?
Here’s a novel idea – let these farmers have equal access to the world market and succeed or fail based on the yields they can produce.
I think the CWB should also purchase oars, and shackle the farmers further than they have already.
Then at least the triremes the CWB has purchased could take advantage of free labour to supplement the CWB manager’s lifestyle choices…saves on diesel fuel too and is YNoKyoto friendly…
“Indentured servitude” a concept you could invest in liberally!?!
Only the elitist in you will really know!
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
They need to talk to old Spud Head/Doorknob Easter, he’s the guy with all the answers on the CWB.
Blow up the Wheat Board. Metaphorically speaking, of course. But the organization should be broken up and it’s staff scattered to the winds and its assets sold and returned to the hostages . . . I mean farmers.
I met one of the board members once, a professor of something or other, and a more pompous commie d***head I’ve never come across.
OT, I know; horrible documentary about treatment of women in Pakistan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyX5zxOtwDc
Just another example of theft of the farmer’s money by the Wheat Board.
It is time for a fair vote and not the stacked votes that have been held in the past.
Empire of Jeff has it partially wrong. It is not the “gubmint” that is taking the farmer’s money, it is the Wheat Board.
Doorknob Easter is a collectivist as far as Western Canadian farmers are concerned, but I wonder what would happen if that little Marxist would try to collectivize the potato farmers of PEI.
The Federal Government should spin-off the ships into their own company immediately (then sell them of course). The wheat board is playing for keeps here and is using all its resources to vertically integrate and maintain the monopoly. They see the writing on the wall and it says “choice is coming to farmers”. These boats mean that once choice arrives, those farmers who try to sell on their own will find the CWB now has market power over transportation too. These farmers will pay through the nose as punishment for their part in dismantling the CWB monopoly.
Jeff is correct, the Wheat Board is government. It exists soely because of an act of federal legislation, the Canadian Wheat Board Act, and it has its own cabinet minister Gerry Ritz.
Farmer Joe, I guess I should have clarified “it is not the ‘gubmint'”. I assumed most people (farmers)knew that, yes, the Wheat Board exists because of an act of federal legislation, but that it is an arms length organ and the cabinet minister Gerry Ritz has no direct authority to tell the Wheat Board how to or how not to spend the money.
I may be wrong, but I do not think Ritz would have allowed this if he had the authority to stop it.
Rick may well be onto something, as I mentioned when this news initially became public that the Wheat Board was positioning itself for some major changes in the future.
True, the CWB is because of an Act of Parliament, but the monopoly is simply by policy. Its done by arbitrarly granting or denying export licences. Granted – your out of the monopoly. Denied – you can only sell to the CWB. I’m a western farmer and both the wheat and barley I grow are out of the CWB. The courts have clearly stated that the CWB administers licences on behalf of the government, and the CWB must follow all orders by regulation from the Governor in Council. (provided the orders are within the CWB Act). The Conservatives ignore these rulings and just let Winnipeg bureaucrats decide who is in and who is out. Amazingly, producers are okay with this and prefer to complain about the elections, prices etc.
The Canadian Wheat Board Act should be revoked using the notwithstanding clause if necessary.
Ritz has the authority. What he doesn’t have are the nads.
Not much Ritz can do being in a minority government. The Bloq, Libs, NDP, would block any attempt to get rid of or make optional the CWB.
But the good news is when CWB farmers are in the area they get to take family and friends on cruises with their fancy new boat. It’s like a timeshare right?
Like every Canadian kid, I always dreamed of joining the Saskatchewan Navy some day. Probably inspired by tales of my grandfather, of sailing the high seas in mighty vessels off the shores of Swift Current.
But alas, I never had the “right stuff” to grow up to be a grande old Saskatchewan sailor, so I joined the Saskatchewan Mountaineers Club instead, and can proudly proclaim that I have conquered some of the highest summits in the Province!
So why shouldn’t the Wheat Board buy ships? Just because there is no water to float them in, is irrelevant: “If you build it they will come”. Besides, it would be unwise to argue with Noah.
Actually ricardo, the prairies is well noted for producing sailors. Must be the sea of wheat thing.
Rumour has it that the CWB is also going to buy a sub or two off the Canadian Navy… just what I heard.
“If you build it they will come”
That’s true. btw, I would like to see the St. Lawrence Seaway extended through the Forks, downtown Winnipeg. It would be cool to have ships in the city!
Minortity government has nothing to do with it. They don’t have the nads.
owl
“Blow up the Wheat Board. Metaphorically speaking, of course. ”
I was with you until the “Metaphorically” part; cynically speaking of course.
ricardo
“So why shouldn’t the Wheat Board buy ships? Just because there is no water to float them in, is irrelevant: “If you build it they will come”. Besides, it would be unwise to argue with Noah.”
Agreed. This is also why any domed stadium for Saskatchewan should be built in Saskatoon instead of Regina(if you ask some S’tooners). Who cares if Saskatoon doesn’t have a football team? That said, who cares if Quebec City has a hockey team? Build away I say, with more Saskatchewan money.
“So why shouldn’t the Wheat Board buy ships? Just because there is no water to float them in, is irrelevant: “If you build it they will come”
The basic goals of communism are to control:
a) the means of production
b) the means of transport and distribution
c) the means of financing
d) the means of communication
When they have a lock on those things, control of almost every other aspect of people’s lives goes along with it.
Oz, are you trying to stifle young people’s aspirations to join the Saskatchewan Navy?
“But we have yet to hear what the minister responsible for the CWB intends to do about this misappropriation of growers’ funds.”
oh dear.
more conservatist stonewalling and hypocrisy and just before the much awaited election.
how are they going to do in the prairies when they REFUSE to act in a way to BACK UP the proclamations?
beagle They will win because the alternatives are worse. Bob Rae is calling Conservative aides jihadists. Buy the man a dictionary.
Access to Information Act requests on CWB staff expenses will bear fruit.
The opposition already blocked attempts to break up the CWB monopoly. http://www.theholmteam.ca/debate.hansard.html
Urban elites deciding the fate of farmers is a very old story. I don’t expect this to change any time soon. What is bothersome is that this decision is made by people so far removed from the prairies, such as the Bloc Quebecois, who themselves are exempt from the CWB. This is a serious structural problem that will be increasingly more difficult to defer as the western provinces’ economic might continues to grow.
Seems to be a lot of confusion over the power of CWB Minister Ritz over the CWB/Liberal gravy boat purchase.
The following should clarify it.
From the Canadian Wheat Board Act:
Quote start:
6. (1) The Corporation possesses the following powers:
(a) to buy, take delivery of, store, transfer, sell, ship or otherwise dispose of grain;
(b) to enter into contracts or agreements for the purchase, sale, handling, storage, transportation, disposition or insurance of grain;
(c) subject to the approval of the Minister of Finance, to enter into commercial banking arrangements;
(c.01) subject to section 19, to borrow money by any means, including the issuing, reissuing, selling and pledging of bonds, debentures, notes and other evidences of indebtedness of the Corporation;
(c.1) subject to the approval of the Minister of Finance, to invest moneys of the Corporation in bonds, debentures, notes or other evidences of indebtedness of or guaranteed by
(i) the Government of Canada or of any province of Canada,
(ii) the government of a foreign country or of any province or state of that country, or
(iii) a financial institution whether in or outside Canada;
(c.2) in the course of its operations, to enter into and deal with any contracts and transactions that the Corporation considers necessary for risk management purposes, including options, futures contracts, forward contracts and currency, commodity and interest rate swaps;
(c.3) to establish a contingency fund consisting of the amounts specified by the regulations, that may be used
(i) to guarantee adjustments to initial payments provided for in subparagraph 32(1)(b)(ii), or
(ii) to provide for potential losses from operations under section 33.01 or 39.1;
(c.4) to issue negotiable certificates in accordance with this Act;
(d) to acquire, hold and dispose of real and personal property, but the Corporation shall not acquire or dispose of any real property without the approval of the Governor in Council;
Quote end
If the CWB did not inform Minister Ritz BEFORE they entered into any real property purchase without his approval, they did so outside of their authority.
And the deal can be rejected by the Minister.
BTW, just think back about the HUGE BUCKS a company called CSL was/is making off the CWB if their shipping cost figures are to be believed.
I meant to add that the above is direct from the CWB Act and the whole boat buying authority should be questioned at all of the coming ‘get to know your CWB company and people’ meetings across the prairies.
Or maybe that should be ‘get to NO your CWB’.
I’m sure even many CWB supporters aren’t happy with this arrogant turn of events.
The CWB should also be asked about the pathetic sales job the CWB is doing when the facts show that Sask produced and sold two spring wheat crops of over 10 mil mt in 1952 and 1953 and that Sask hasn’t produced and sold a spring wheat crop over 10 mil mt in the last 12 yrs.
And yet this stagnant CWB was paying bonuses to its employees under that slug Ken Ritter!
PRIVATIZE the western grain industry and watch it GROW.
rockyt, it is pretty clear that the purchase of the ships is a contravention of 6 (d) and either they slipped it past Ritz and the Governor in Council or they approved it.
I am not sure about the makeup of the Governor in Council, but I believe that it is some members of the Cabinet and Ritz. I also believe that this is the same group that approves changes to the price of wheat and barley.
Most Canadians are neither hungry nor farmers and do not give a damn about the CWB’s systematic rape of western Canada. People have been jailed over selling their grain outside of CWB and nobody cared. Unless it’s a Charlie Sheen type scandal nobody will even notice.
are you trying to stifle young people’s aspirations to join the Saskatchewan Navy?
~ricardo
Not at all, ricardo.
After all, we here in Calgary have a Naval Reserve Base called HMCS Temcumseh.
I’ve seen many upstanding young people there.
Saskatchewan deserves to have their Naval aspirations fullfilled too.
HMCS Tecumseh also has one of the best preserved examples of the Supermarine Seafire Mark XV Naval fighterbomber at the N.E. side of the building.
http://tinyurl.com/4anhf3s
The Canadian Wheat Board Act (available online) sets out the purpose of the Canadian Wheat Board and the allowable activites of the Board. I believe the Board of directors have exceeded their authority in several areas, the purchase of ships, running a weather service, giving scholarships, and advertizing to oppose the WTO agreement, plus others. I have made a request of the solicitor general to investigate these breeches of trust with regard to personal liability of directors and possible charges. To date I have had no reply. The Act is very clear that the money belongs to farmers. The CWB was created by and maintained by, the federal government and it is only through federal government actions that farmers are forced to turn our private property over to the agency for marketing. When the government imposes the CWB on farmers it clearly takes on a responsibility to investigate the CWB and protect the rights of farmers compelled to do business with the government imposed monopoly.
Please contact the Solicitor General and demand an investigation.
1. Based on the latest annual report and a reported 460 employees, the average salary and benefits of a CWB employee is over $94,000.
2. Alberta farmers are being forced to pay for ships that provide zero benefit to them. The ships will move grain from the eastern prairies (Manitoba). The Board looks after those who vote to continue the monoploy.
3. Making the CWB voluntary is opposed by the Liberals, NDP and Bloc. Except Ralph Goodale all elected from outside the CWB area. Quebec and Ontario must keep the colonies controlled. Tea Party anyone.
4. Farmers in Ontario Quebec, BC and the maritimes refuse to be subjected to the CWB.
“Farmers in Ontario Quebec, BC and the maritimes refuse to be subjected to the CWB.”
Not true. they are subjected to the national Part IV of the CWB Act. The so-called “monopoly teeth” of the Act.
I agree m-alta, it is time for a Tea Party!
this thing has out lived it’s usefullness.
this is theft and stupidity at the highest.
what bloody good are these ships to alberta?
the only thing it does is steal their moeny!
i feel the only reason they are buying these ships is to load them with gov. employee’s.
more golden wages and 1000 dollar bonus cheques for stress no doubt.
must be some weasels in the rocks getting kick backs over this.
we should check out goodales bank account for starters, he supports this theft machine called the cwb.
i emailed several mp’s over this, one emailed back saying they were against buying these ships, but that i should contact my wheat board rep.
i emailed him back telling him he was passing the buck as far as i was concerned.
i told him it was up to them to stop this, if the cwb doesn’t listen to the government… why would they listen to m
m, i will contact the solicitor general.
one has to wonder who is running this country.
seems like once we elect these jerks, they start counting the years of service for their golden pensions and to hell with us.
To John at 8:29
Better read the regulations refered to in Part IV John. When export permits have been required for grain produced outside the colonies they have ALWAYS been provided at no cost. Inside the colonies there has always been a fee. The fee is called a buy back where a farmer is forced to sell his grain to the Government corporation and then to buy it back from the Corp at a higher price before he is issued and export permit. No farmers outside the colonies have allow themselves to be subjected to the CWB.
I am very familiar with the Act and regulations. What part of either states a difference between eastern and western grown grain?
The difference is POLICY.
Also, note regulation 14.1 which clearly states “no fee”. How do you explain buy-back costs for inter-provincial domestic sales?