WINNIPEG, Manitoba - The Manitoba legislature has passed a resolution in favor of maintaining the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly, but Premier Gary Doer didn't get the all-party support he wanted.
The governing NDP and the Liberals both voted in favor of the resolution to stay with a single-desk system, while the provincial Tories voted against it.
Doer had wanted a unanimous vote to send a strong message to the federal government.
The federal Tories campaigned on a promise to end the board's monopoly.
The single-desk system means all farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba must sell their barley and wheat through the wheat board.
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Manitoba Tory Leader Hugh Mc-
Fadyen says he is a proponent of "marketing choice" and that he thinks there are lots of reasons why letting farmers choose how to market their grain is a good idea.
The board purchases grain from hundreds of Manitoba farmers, employs 400 people in its Winnipeg, Manitoba, headquarters, and is the main client of the Port of Churchill, Manitoba.
Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl says he will allow farmers to vote early next spring when it comes to the marketing of barley. He says there also will be a vote for wheat farmers if that's what they want, but he hasn't indicated when.
Doer says holding a vote on barley alone is ridiculous and is pandering to Alberta, where farmers generally are not in favor of the Wheat Board. He says two out of three barley producers live in Alberta.
The Manitoba legislature passed a second resolution Nov. 20 calling for Ottawa to let farmers vote on the Wheat Board's future, but the Tories voted against it after objecting to the wording.
Doer calls Strahl an anti-democratic bully, and Nov. 20, he lumped the provincial Tories in with their federal counterparts for voting against the single-desk system.
But McFadyen says it's ridiculous to vote in favor of the single-desk system and then in the next breath vote to let farmers decide.
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- Canadian Press
