To the editor,
Ed White (Politics monopolizes single desk issue, The Westerner producer July 14), among others, has complained that a convincing business case has never been made in favour of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk. The vest is the business case is so simple, compelling and routine that newspaper pundits seldom report it.
The CWB’s audited statements show that more than 98 per cent f sales revenue is passed back to the farmers. private corporations, with their requirements to pay off banks, investors and risk managers, cannot come close to this performance.
The CWB’s sale premiums have been tested and proven in 14 international trade tribunals. These tribunals are held under oath with both the CWB and its opponents being required to provide complete sales records.
Every one of these exhaustive investigations by the United States has shown that the CWB gets premium prices for Canadian grain when compared to the private trade.
This quote from the 1999 U.S. Department of Commerce investigation referring to the CWB and barley prices say it all: “The Canadian domestic price was actually higher in portions of the Period of Investigation (POI) and after the POI.”
The evidence on the business case is clear, yet we have seen 20 years of howling by the private trade to get rid of the CWB’s single desk. Why is their howling still news while the iron-clad business case for the CWB seldom rates any coverage?
Ken Larsen,
Benalto, AB