To the Editor:
RE: Canadian Wheat Board Contingency Fund ($200 million).
The Harper government is scooping money earned by the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) - money that rightfully belongs to prairie farmers - and instead, the Conservatives are diverting it to cover the cost of killing the CWB.
So far, some $200 million has been siphoned away from farmers this fall and socked into something called the CWB "contingency fund".
This fund was created in 1998 when a producer-elected Board of Directors first took charge of the CWB. To maximize returns to producers, those directors were empowered to engage in more flexible, innovative marketing activities, and the contingency fund was to be a safeguard - gradually building-up a "reserve" to shield farmers against any future losses that might result from new initiatives and options.
To keep it reasonable, the fund was capped at $60 million for the last 13 years.
Then suddenly this fall, the Conservatives pushed that cap up to $100 million, and then $200 million - to accumulate a huge internal slush fund, at farmers' expense.
Why so much money? And why now?
The answer is obvious. The Conservatives are taking money earned by the CWB from its current grain marketing activities, and rather than sending those profits to farmers, the government is forcing $200 million to be held back.
Having been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, the Conservatives admit they intend to use that money - farmers' money, earned through the current CWB - to pay for shutting down the single-desk and then subsidizing some eventual private sector entity.
It's disgraceful! And another reason to stop the Conservative steamroller that's crushing any semblance of democracy in Ottawa.
Ralph Goodale, MP (Wascana), Frank Valeriote, MP (Guelph), Wayne Easter, MP (Malpeque), Kevin Lamoureux, MP (Winnipeg North).
