Re: ìRitz choosing to ignore reality of the CWB,î page 13, August 2, 2011 Mountain View Gazette.This is in response to my fellow Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) director Mr. Korneychuk's criticism of Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz's plan to allow marketing freedom for western Canadian wheat and barley producers.The Canadian Wheat Board is mandated by an act of Parliament, one that as Mr. Korneychuk points out was rewritten in 1998 to allow 10 out of 15 directors to be elected by farmers.Yet when the act was reintroduced, there was not a producer vote to see if all producers accepted such a change.One has to remember my predecessor at the board table from District 2, Jim Chatenay. Jim took a bag of wheat across the border in 1996 and donated it to a Montana 4-H club, only to be arrested on his return to Canada. Jim was sentenced to 62 days, and served his full sentence.Where is the democracy in jailing farmers who wish to sell their own grains how they deem best?The CWB Act can be revised, modified, or repealed at any time. Today's government has made it quite clear over the past five plus years that change to marketing freedom is going to happen.Now with the Conservative majority, that fact has come to life.Legislation is planned to be introduced early on in the fall sitting of Parliament. The board of directors (BOD) of the CWB has recognized the fact that the government has the power to do this, and as a board we have agreed to move forward and prepare to see the end of the single desk marketing of the CWB.Along with that, work has begun on a new entity in cooperation with government. This is to ensure the strengths of the current CWB will continue and allow producers to use if they so choose.Mr. Korneychuk ignores the facts that over the years producers have shown the BOD, through our own producer surveys, significant declines in producer support for the single desk.Our most recent survey released this past June, showed for wheat, support split for Alberta producers at 47 per cent open market, 47 per cent single desk. Yet when asked a third option - dual market - 56 per cent support a dual market over 26 per cent single desk.On barley, the results are clearer, for Alberta - 66 per cent open market, 24 per cent single desk (prairie-wide 49 per cent open, 37 per cent single desk).The CWB in its 13 years of conducting these producer surveys has never seen support for marketing barley under the single desk, which makes one wonder why, if the BOD of the CWB wishes farmers to be heard on the value of the single desk, then why hasn't the board listened to barley producers who time and time again have told them to let them out of the monopoly?In closing, as the elected director for District 2, it is my duty to respect all producers. With that in mind, moving forward and working to create a new entity for the future that will allow producers choice to market their grains, is what I will be doing to the best of my abilities.Jeff NielsenCWB DirectorDistrict 2
