Manitoba to fight changes to Canadian Wheat Board

Rod Nickel – 1 hr 33 mins ago

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – The province of Manitoba will lead an advertising campaign to stop the federal government from stripping the Canadian Wheat Board of its monopoly on the Western Canadian grain trade, the provincial government said on Monday.

Canada's Conservative government plans to introduce legislation this autumn to end the Wheat Board's marketing monopoly on wheat, durum and barley by August 2012.

Manitoba has no direct say in the future of the Wheat Board, which is governed by federal law and controlled by government appointees and farmer-elected directors.

But Premier Greg Selinger said the province is joining the CWB and some farm groups in demanding that Ottawa hold a vote by farmers to decide the CWB's future, as required by the current legislation.

"With a farmer-controlled organization, it's fundamental that they have the say and the plebiscite."

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has refused to call a farmer plebiscite.

Selinger, who faces an election in autumn, said he would consider a lawsuit to stop the change only once the House of Commons has debated the new legislation.

The monopoly requires Western farmers to sell wheat, durum and barley only to the Wheat Board, unlike the open-market system for other crops. The board is the world's last major agricultural monopoly and has been in place since the Second World War.

Manitoba is one of the three major grain-producing provinces on the Western Prairies and its capital, Winnipeg, is where the Wheat Board's head office is located.

The province's left-leaning New Democratic Party government is concerned about a potential loss of 400 jobs at the Wheat Board under the new marketing system as well as reduced shipping through Manitoba's seldom-used Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay.

Canada is the world's biggest shipper of spring wheat, durum and malting barley, mostly through the Wheat Board.

The Conservative federal government has said that the Wheat Board can survive as a buyer of farmers' grain on a voluntary basis, but the board says it cannot compete with private grain handlers without its own capital and grain storage.

While the board is campaigning against the change, it is also privately talking with the Canadian government about a potential new role for it, said Wheat Board Chairman Allen Oberg.

"A strong and viable organization is possible, but the minister needs to have a business plan communicated to me and communicated to farmers," he said. "Our role is to identify what would be required for a new organization on the Prairies, which is what you would be creating."

The country's biggest grain handler, Viterra Inc, said last week it supports ending the monopoly, which it said would lead to greater returns for farmers, the industry and its own shareholders.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel; editing by Peter Galloway)