Giving away Wheat Board assets and Pat Martin's outburst in the House
[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-ne ... urst-house ]
By Karl Nerenberg | December 3, 2014
If you believe that government monopoly agencies are not the best way to get Canadian agricultural products to market you probably applauded when the Harper government eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board's control of the prairie grain business.
That move "liberated" Western farmers, freed them from the bondage of "big government," Prime Minister Harper boasts, and allowed them to take part fully in the free market economy.
But even if you are an enthusiastic cheerleader for open markets in agriculture, you've got to be a bit worried about the Conservatives' current plans for the no-longer-single-desk Canadian Wheat Board.
The Harper government legislation that got rid of the Wheat Board's monopoly also stipulated that the agency should be fully privatized by 2017.
Farmers' offer of $250 to $300 million rejected by Board
Playing by Conservative rules, a 3,000-member farmers' consortium called Farmers of North America put together a bid to buy the Board and all its assets (grain elevators, rail lines, ships, offices, and other such stuff).
The 3,000 farmers offered somewhere between $250 and $350 million for the Board. On the face of it and based on estimated evaluations of the Board's value, that offer seems like a good price for Canadian taxpayers, who own at least some of the Board's assets. And the consortium would keep ownership of the Board's assets in Canada, which prairie farmers and the Harper government would consider to be something of a virtue, one might think.
The current Wheat Board's Conservative government-appointed board of directors rejected the offer, however, without giving any reason -- at least not publicly.
Now, there are persistent rumours that the Conservatives plan to simply transfer ownership of the Board, and all its grain handling equipment, to U.S. mega-corporation Archer Daniel Midlands, for a price of -- wait for it -- $0.00.
The entire process is totally non-transparent. It seems that neither the public nor Parliament has the right to know anything in detail about how the government plans to privatize a venerable Canadian institution
- - - - -SNIP - - - -
It was all a bit much for Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin, who stood up to ask a question following his colleague's round, only to have his incredulous anger at the Minister's non-answers overtake him.
"Let us see if I understand the Conservatives' business plan for the Canadian Wheat Board," Martin started out, calmly enough, and then continued for a bit in the same vein. "First, they take the largest and most successful grain marketing company in the world and then they give it away, free of charge, to an American agrifood giant which, until recently, was their greatest competitor."
And then, well, then, something in Martin seemed to snap, and he said: "My question is simple, and I ask it through you, Mr. Speaker. Has the minister lost his freaking mind? Or is he that ..."
Not surprisingly, the Speaker cut Martin off at that point.
We relate the whole exchange, here, in case readers have only heard reports of Martin's final verbal explosion.
If unparliamentary language is never justified -- as some of us, including this writer, believe -- what preceded Martin's outburst at least explains, if it does not entirely excuse, this particular episode of verbal excess.