OPINIONS STILL DIVIDED
Five years after the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, debate continues
The federal government eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly five years ago this week, but grain farmer Stewart Wells isn’t celebrating the anniversary.
The board, set up in 1935, was the sole organization allowed to buy and export western Canadian wheat and barley until former prime minister Stephen Harper’s government eliminated the “single desk” and opened the system to competition on Aug. 1, 2012, a time Harper called “grain marketing freedom day.”
The government sold the Crown corporation in 2015 to G3 Global Grain Group, owned by Saudi Arabia and a U.S. grain trader.
For some in the industry, the end of the wheat board was a victory in an emotional fight to increase profitability and efficiency — some farmers went to jail in the 1990s for taking their grain across the border to sell illegally in the U.S.
But Wells, a former wheat board director who chairs the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board, sees the government action as a hammer blow that continues to hurt the average producer.
“There’s no question it’s the single biggest transfer of wealth away from farmers over to the grain trade in the 150-year history of this country,” said Wells, who works 2,500 acres near Swift Current, Sask.
“It’s amounted to billions of dollars every year since 2012.”
Most members in a wheat board plebiscite voted to keep the monopoly, a result the government dismissed.
A 2015 study by University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist Richard Gray concluded insufficient capacity in the grain handling and transportation system during the big 2013-14 and 2014-15 crop years cut producer incomes between $5 billion and $6.7 billion.
Mohammad Torshizi, a grain transportation specialist at the University of Alberta’s department of agricultural, life and environmental sciences, said the impact would have been smaller under the wheat board because farmers wouldn’t have rushed to sell before prices became even worse.
He doesn’t have a clear answer to whether eliminating the wheat board was a good idea — farmers adept at the complexities of selling grain, or close to elevators or the U.S. market, tend to like the move, while more isolated operators or people less likely to peddle their product are often unsupportive.
“From the perspective of voicing farmers’ concerns, the wheat board helped. They showed up in times of crisis, but in general I can also tell you a lot of farmers are happy because they have the freedom to market their grain as they want. It’s difficult to put a price on people’s freedom.”
In theory, major firms such as Richardson International and Glencore compete with each other to buy grain from farmers.
“She had frequent encounters with people and never anything harmful. And I think this is where 148 has learned this confidence.
“She was used to seeing her mother when she was a young cub. If people got too close, her mother would huff or give a signal and then people would move off. This is a similar behaviour we see with 148.
“She’ll give a little huff and take two short steps toward somebody. Then she goes back to feeding.”
She does that a lot. There have been “many, many dozens” of recorded contacts between 148 and people. Staff track the bears by their numbered ear tags.
Many encounters have been positive.
Hunt recently received a message from someone who watched the bear splashing and rolling about in a blue mountain lake to cool off.
Hunt has seen her himself on his morning bike commute to Banff.
Others have been a bit more nerve-racking.
This summer, 148 has strayed onto a high school rugby field, charged a person walking with a stroller and chased dogs out for a walk with their owners. The bear has already been trapped and relocated to the far western edge of her range, but 148 wanders back within days. She was trapped again in Canmore in late July.
“There have been several incidents in the days leading up to Friday, so we decided to move her,” said Brent Wittmeier, press secretary to environment minister Shannon Phillips.
Nobody likes to think it, but the spectre of her brother’s fate is starting to hang over Bear 148.
Hunt emphasizes that she is not a “garbage bear” that hangs around human habitation in hopes of an easy meal.
“She is absolutely not interested in garbage at all. For a bear that spends that much time in and around the communities, the fact that she hasn’t become hooked on garbage or bird feeders really speaks to people’s commitment to not making that food available for wildlife.”
If Bear 148 is to continue rumbling up and down the lap of the Rockies in one of Canada’s most beautiful and busy places, people need to help her out.
They can do that by hiking or strolling through the woods in groups. Making noise. Carrying bear spray, especially while running or cycling. Keeping dogs on a leash or leaving pets at home. Not leaving food lying around.
Bear 148 has been bred twice this summer. Hunt would like to see her get every chance to bring her cubs into the same range where her mother birthed her. “We’d just really like to encourage people to do their part.”