The reason farmers sought market power back then

The following contains excerpts from comments to the recent Fields on Wheels conference by Paul Earl, who has a PhD in history and is acting director of the University of Manitoba’s Transport Institute. Earl spent many years working for United Grain Growers and the Western Canadian Grain Growers Association lobbying the federal government to end

Regulations, farmer voice needed in post-CWB monopoly world

Two vocal advocates for deregulating Western Canada’s wheat marketing are now suggesting farmers need a strong voice and new regulations to protect them from the open market. While free enterprise is the best economic system, it only works when transactions are voluntary and there is true competition, Paul Earl, a former lobbyist against the Canadian


Western grain system humming so far this crop year

Canada’s grain-handling and transportation system performed above average during the first 13 weeks of the new crop year, but it’s too soon to tell if there’s a connection with ending of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly, according to Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corporation, the firm hired by the federal government to monitor system performance.



Farmers complain about problems delivering grain to CWB

CWB vice-president of grain procurement Gord Flaten says it’s mostly just growing pains and the system will work

Some grain handlers are refusing to accept CWB grain deliveries and promising better grades to farmers who bypass the new voluntary board, farmers said during a recent conference call with CWB officials Oct. 17. During the conference-call meeting with more than 3,200 farmers, an Alberta producer (who identified himself only as John) said elevator employees

Dedicated farm advocate Bob Douglas passes

Bob Douglas, one of Manitoba’s pre-eminent farm champions, died Oct. 6 at the age of 80. “I think Bob is one of those unsung heroes that farmers just heard his name but didn’t know what he committed to them,” Earl Geddes, a former Keystone Agricultural Producers’ president, said in an interview Monday. “I’ve got nothing


New CWB has role in open market

Western farmers have long been divided over the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly, but farmers on both sides of the debate can agree the new CWB’s role is to add competition to the marketplace, says CWB vice-president for grain procurement Gord Flaten. The CWB provides farmers with the option to pool wheat, durum and barley sales,

CWB court battle rages on

The ongoing legal battle over the removal of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly is starting to resemble a courtroom version of ping pong. The federal government is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to put an end to the legal wrangling, but the group of farmers known as the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board


It’s onward and upward as crowds flock to St. Norbert Farmers’ Market

It’s official: Le Marché St.-Norbert Farmers’ Market is one heck of a draw. The market on Winnipeg’s southern outskirts drew 10,000 people on a single day in August. The huge Saturday crowd demonstrates why recently announced renovations and improvements are badly needed, said Marilyn Firth, the market’s community relations manager. Those include upgraded drainage, improved

Farm groups set objectives for fall session of Parliament

With the Canadian Wheat Board battle in the rear-view mirror, this fall’s parliamentary session won’t be as controversial. But long-promised legislation to set standards for railway service levels, drought aid for Ontario and Quebec farmers, and the new Growing Forward deal — expected to make farmers more responsible for their financial well-being — should generate