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FLAWED PROCESS SKEWS WHEAT BOARD PLEBISCITE RESULTS

Released on March 28, 2007

Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said today that his federal counterpart has no mandate to change the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).

Wartman said federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl was repeatedly warned about the need for clarity in the plebiscite on barley marketing, but refused to listen.

“We told Minister Strahl that there would be problems with the results if he followed the process that he did,” Wartman said.  “And now, we have 45 per cent of producers in Saskatchewan favouring the CWB single desk and less than 13 per cent wanting the CWB out of barley marketing.  I can get no clarity from this result.  Those choosing the option to have both the CWB and an open market did so for a variety of reasons.”

Wartman said he is not surprised by this outcome, given the three option plebiscite design and the inclusion of the impossible “best of both worlds” second option.

“We warned Minister Strahl that this would confuse the issue and we now find ourselves with no clear result,” Wartman said.  “The plebiscite was designed to manufacture the result the federal government sought.  It was not designed for farmers to have a real say on the marketing systems they support.”
 
Wartman posed several questions for Minister Strahl: 

  1. The federal government’s own Task Force noted that it would be difficult for the CWB to operate in an open market and the CWB yesterday indicated that it could provide no value in an open, multiple-seller market.  What has changed to make this a viable option?
  2. Will the federal government do the same thing with wheat?  Will they pose questions to manufacture the results they want?
  3. Why is Ottawa not prepared to respect the direction provided by the producer-elected directors of the CWB?

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For more information, contact:

Scott Brown
Agriculture and Food
Regina
Phone: 306-787-4031
Email: sbrown@agr.gov.sk.ca 

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