Saskatchewan Party MLA Lyle Stewart along with leader Darrel Wall, Dearborn, Elhard, and Huyghebaert have now belatedly entered the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) fray,) Prairie Post Aug. 17/07).
He quotes the tired and completely false Tory figures of 62% want choice. However, he fails to advise that on Oct. 25, 2006 the Task Force appointed by Chuck Strahl released its report, “Marketing Choice – the way Forward”. Page 10 of that report states: “The latter term (dual marketing) implies to some that the existing marketing approach a CWB with monopoly powers could co-exist with an open market approach. This is not possible."
Further to that, on January 22, 2007 The Minister of Agriculture confirmed that in order to assist “producers to make an informed decision” he had retained the services of three individuals, one of which is Dr. Murray Fulton of the University of Saskatchewan. Their task was to write a ‘short, objective description of each question’ which will be provided to producers.
In November 2006, Dr. Fulton released his study entitled, “The Canadian Wheat Board in an Open Market: The Impact of Removing the single desk selling powers”. Page 11 of Dr. Futlon’s study stated “A dual marketing structure is not viable because of the incentives that are created as a consequence of the nature of the dual market. Interestingly, since a dual market is not viable, farmers will ultimately have no choice between marketing through a pool and marketing through the open market. Only the open market option will exist.”
Despite this information from the Federal Minister’s own hand picked persons, and the fact that only 13.8% of farmers voted to sell barley on the Open Market, Stewart and his Saskatchewan Party cohorts continue to parrot Tory figures.
While he mentions the $30.000.00 the Saskatchewan Government invested in seeing justice was done, Stewart failed to mention the millions of taxpayer dollars the Federal Government (and the Alberta Government) poured into the attack on the CWB.
It would seem that it would not be in the best interests of the Saskatchewan Party to support illegal actions by the Federal Government.
Remember, only 13.8% voted to market barley on the open market also, (63.7% of Canadians did not vote for Harper). Makes one think.
