World Grain - May 2013 - 64

FEATURE: CANADA’S GRAIN MARKETING FREEDOM

dirty tricks will be remembered as a betrayal and sellout of western farmers.”
On the other hand, those wheat and
barley farmers who had pressured
Ottawa to make the change were pleased
with the legislation.
“It’s a fantastic day to be a freedomloving Canadian farmer,” said Kevin
Bender, president of the Western
Canadian Wheat Growers Association,
when the legislation went into effect. “It’s also a day to remember all
those who have fought long and hard
to achieve this tremendous milestone.
Farmers can now look forward to a new
era of freedom and prosperity.”
Bender told World Grain that prior
to federal legislation coming into effect that removed the board’s monopoly
powers, the wheat growers had been
told that “there’s going to be a race to
the (U.S.) border” and the American
government would be quick to shut

down the border as a consequence.
“Well that didn’t happen,” he said. “We
saw the U.S. price come to Canada, so
there wasn’t a need to truck it. I didn’t
believe that there would be major hiccups
and things have really transitioned well.”
Asked if he believes the change in the
mandate of the CWB will lead to more
secondary processing, such as ﬂour
milling, north of the border, Bender said
it is a strong possibility.
For example, he referred to an announcement by Alliance Grain Traders
Inc. shortly after the legislation took effect
that it would build a pasta plant in Regina,
Saskatchewan, at a cost of C$50 million.
Murad Al-Katib, president and CEO of
Alliance, said in making the announcement: “We have always been focused on
creating value through origin-based processing, locating our processing facilities
where high quality crops are grown. We
seek to create value for our farmer sup-

pliers and our shareholders by shipping
ﬁnished food products and not just the
raw basic commodities to markets around
the world. I think the open market now is
the most favorable environment for those
things to take place,” Bender said.
He also said the removal of the CWB
monopoly has brought with it “a lot of optimism and positive thinking,” particularly
among the younger generation of farmers.
“The optimism was there when
we heard we were getting an open
market,” he said. “That optimism
hasn’t changed.”
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
Leo Quigley writes for a variety of national
and international publications specializing
in agriculture and transportation. He can be
reached at Quigley@dccnet.com.
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inquiries to worldgrain@sosland.com. For reprints of
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