These comments are direct quotations from the Hansard
documents.
CWB Government Controlled
Mr. Howard Hilstrom (Selkirk—Interlake, Canadian Alliance):
Mr. Speaker, western farmers are not in charge of the Canadian Wheat
Board. Western farmers did not get a vote to establish a monopoly. Farmers
did not vote on Bill C-4 in 1998. Farmers do not set the initial price.
Farmers do not vote on all 15 directors. Farmers do not vote on the
appointment of the president. Farmers do not vote on amending the Canadian
Wheat Board Act, only politicians can.
How can the minister say that farmers are in charge when he makes all the
decisions?
Mr. Paul Szabo (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works
and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Wheat Board
is comprised of 15 directors, two-thirds of whom are elected by western
Canadian farmers.
The Canadian Wheat Board is not a crown corporation and, contrary to what
the member said, the minister does not control the Canadian Wheat Board.
Mr. David Anderson (Cypress Hills—Grasslands, Canadian Alliance):
Mr. Speaker, it is worse than that. The board of directors of the Canadian
Wheat Board, with this minister's knowledge, has been stealing prairie
farmers' money to pay wheat export permits for Ontario and Quebec farmers.
This activity actually directly contradicts the minister's own
legislation.
The board is breaking the law and working against the interests of prairie
farmers. Will the minister continue to allow the board to operate outside
the law or will he step in to recover the money stolen from prairie
producers who now need protection from the Canadian Wheat Board?
Mr. Paul Szabo (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works
and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the member says that the
farmers need the protection of the Canadian Wheat Board. What I do not
understand is that the Alliance itself came forward with a motion calling
for the end of the Canadian Wheat Board. This contradiction should be
known by western Canadian farmers.
Western Canadian farmers have the tools to make the necessary changes to
the Canadian Wheat Board Act. They have the vote. The government respects
the democratic rights of western Canadian farmers.
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