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OSPG
(June 17, 2003 - Wawota) The Canadian Wheat Board informed Parliament (Hansard, June 10,
2003) that they are not violating the CWB Act
because they have the amazing ability to issue export licences at
absolutely no cost.
The CWB Act requires that all exporters throughout Canada must
have an export licence, issued only by the CWB. Export licences are all the same, however the CWB claims that they have
costs to issue some licences but no costs to issue others.
“Their shameless assertion was delivered to Parliament by Ralph
Goodale, the Minister responsible for the CWB,” states Wawota,
Saskatchewan organic farmer John Husband.. “While the CWB admit
that issuing licences costs them over $100,000 per year, they claim the
cost vanishes to zero for selected licences.”
“Its not hard to understand why they have fabricated these ridiculous
assertions. They know that if they have even small costs, they and the
Government are violating the Act by making farmers pay instead of the
government. Farmers have been jailed for much smaller amounts.”
“Part IV of the CWB Act is national export taxing legislation for
government coffers and is separate from the marketing part of the Act
for the designated area. The CWB Act does not allow any Part IV
costs as marketing expenses because that would put the CWB Act in
violation of the 1867 Constitution which requires the Government to pay
for their own tax collection
schemes. The CWB is only further eroding their credibility with
their incredulous explanation.”
“There’s nothing new about false information from the CWB,” states
organic farmer Bill Rees, Stockholm Saskatchewan. “They lied to
organic farmers and even to a Library of Parliament lawyer by claiming
that the legislation would not allow organic grain out of the monopoly.
For two years, they insisted they couldn’t do the very thing they were
obviously doing. Finally, when pressured by Parliament’s
Standing Committee of Agriculture, they admitted the truth.”
“If the CWB directors and staff were really trying to maximize returns
for farmers, as they are always claiming, they would insist that the
government pays the national Part IV related expenses as required by the
Act and Constitution instead of trying to cover up at farmer’s
expense.” concludes Rees.
For further information please contact:
John Husband - 306-739-2900
Bill Rees - 306-793-2113
OSPG is a voluntary, and totally self-funded association of organic
grain producers from all regions of the
Prairie designated area with the goal of marketing choice for farmers. |
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