Figured that I would start a new thread, so that the old one wasn't hijacked...
CWB = Canadian Wheat Board
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
I don't want to turn this into a wheat board argument thread, but I would say its a little more than "perceived public pressure". The case went all the way to the Supreme Court for judgment...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by calculoso
And the Supreme Court said that Cabinet cannot make the decision.
They didn't say anything about whether the monopoly was justified or not.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Putting all partisanship aside, no one could determine whether the monopoly is justified...its a matter of opinion.
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That is correct. A matter of opinion. I don't get where the resistance to a Dual Market system comes from.
A history:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/agriculture/cwb.html
"Some farmers say the board has outlived its usefulness, that selling grain through one government agency - the "single desk," they call it - no longer works.
Defenders of the CWB say that without it the price of grain would fluctuate day-to-day and farmers themselves would have to negotiate their own price."
"In 1997, a referendum of barley producers found that nearly 63 per cent of the farmers support retaining the CWB's monopoly. Critics of the referendum, however, pointed out that the dual market system wasn't an option on the referendum.
In a plebiscite of Alberta farmers in 1996, 66 per cent were in favour of the dual market system."
Now, there's criticism that this last plebiscite was skewed because the Dual Market System was on the ballot.
Guess they can't win either way.
If there are higher prices out there than farmers can get with the CWB, why should they be held back? If nothing else, it should mean that the CWB would fight for higher prices than farmers are currently getting. If most farmers don't want to do the extra work to find higher prices and want to stay with the CWB, then the CWB would keep their market share/supply of grain and have very little impact.
Where's the down side?