If the Wheat Board is dismantled, who should get its cash and other assets? The farmers, the federal government or both? That's the burning question these days as the latest twist in the ongoing, heated debate unfolds. Earlier this week a $15.4 million class action lawsuit was launched in Saskatoon seeking damages resulting from changes made by the Harper government to the Canadian Wheat Board.
Plaintiff Duane Filson, a farmer, teacher and municipal politician from Woodrow, Saskatchewan, represents a class that could include any Prairie grain farmer who sold wheat or barley to the Canadian Wheat Board in 2011 or 2012.
Merchant Law Group launched the suit on farmers' behalf and Tony Merchant says, "This lawsuit is not about the single desk [monopoly marketing system]... If you're going to make changes, you have to compensate," noting that when the federal government ended the Crow Rate subsidy for shipping grain by rail, farmers were compensated.
Documents filed in court say that farmers should be compensated for losing all of the wheat board's assets at the time the government's changes took effect: $100 million in cash, over 3,000 rail cars, the prepaid purchase value of lake freighters for shipping grain by sea, an office building in Winnipeg and other intangible assets, as valued by experts for the purpose of the lawsuit. Part of the claim includes damages for lost price premiums previously obtained with the selling power of the board's monopoly.
But how far is too far? And are the farmers right to be going this route?
Right or wrong, perhaps it's time to move on. This is a debate to which no one will ever fully agree upon, one that's costing taxpayer dollars and taking up time. Change is inevitable in every aspect of life, it's how we choose to deal with it that matters.
