Farmers across Canada are becoming increasingly agitated over a perceived lack of transparency regarding changes at the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).
Most recently, a group called the Friends of the CWB was pleased to see four of their members allowed to move forward with sections of a class action suit.
The class action suit is over the alleged misallocation of funds and assets of the CWB once the farmer control of the corporation was disbanded.
Plaintiff farmers Harold Bell, from British Columbia; Andrew Dennin from Manitoba, Nathan Macklin from Alberta and Ian McCreary, from Saskatchewan have been given the green light to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada over certain parts of the class action suit, explained Stewart Wells with the Friends of the CWB.
“There’s still a bunch of government money that’s tied up in that organization,” said Wells.
A suit was launched for farmers to get compensation as the CWB was publicly funded. The four plaintiffs were allowed to submit a suit but not over CWB assets. They are in the process of finding out whether the Supreme Court will consider their case, said Wells.
He says even if they can’t sue over the assets, this class action suit could see money in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
“There’s a lot of money involved in this whole organization, in this whole upheaval,” stated Wells.
He feels it is an issue of fair compensation to the many farmers who helped build the CWB, which was publicly funded up until recently. While the organization is under consideration for being privatized, Wells does not feel those funds should go to the company taking over.
Recently, the Farmers of North America put in a bid to own and operate the CWB, but they were turned down.
Wells says nobody involved in this CWB controversy is disputing that farmers were the ones that paid for the assets, and yet they cannot seem to fight the issue. He also stated that nobody has been able to examine financial documents of the CWB after 2012.
The Farmers of North America (FNA) recently questioned, through a press release, the privatization of the CWB, underlining confusing statements over their bid to acquire it.
“Farmers are telling us that they are deeply disturbed about the CWB privatization process. Recently, FNA learned that their bid to acquire the CWB, backed by strong farmer-interest, was rejected. This is a clear message that there is no interest from CWB management to include farmers in a meaningful way in the privatization process,” states the release.
It further stresses “It is their opportunity to own, and accrue benefits from, the value chain. Farmers envision it to be run by industry experts to optimum industry standards, independent of government, with no expectations of government assistance or involvement in the future.”
Wells says the plaintiffs have to get their request to the Supreme Court before Dec. 15. If they are turned down, they will still be able to move forward with other parts of the claim.