DCHP-2

Canadian Wheat Board CWB DCHP-2 (April 2016)

• n. — Agriculture

  a marketing board that controlled the sales of wheat and barley produced in western Canada.

  Type: 1. Origin — The Canadian Wheat Board was established by the federal government after World War I as a temporary measure to regulate grain sales; after it was abolished, provincial wheat pools performed some of the same functions. It was re-established in 1935 as the Depression was forcing farmers into bankruptcy and it was the sole marketing board for wheat and barley until 2012, when its successor entity became just one of several purchasers and whole sellers (see Canadian Encyclopedia, Maple Leaf Web). The Canadian Wheat Board shaped the development of the nation in the 20th century and particularly of much of Western Canada. It is considered by some as a culturally significant institution that stood for some key ideas in 20th-century Canada.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "Wheat Board", which is marked "Cdn".

  See also: CWB  marketing board  

  • 1919  "The course which these gentlemen desire is precisely that which the Government has taken. The price of wheat has not been fixed, but in order to avoid inconvenience to farmers, who must of necessity have an advance in ready-money on account of their crop, the Government proposes that the Canadian Wheat Board shall make to such producer a reasonable and substantial payment on account. "The amount of this payment will be recommended by the Canadian Wheat Board, and the Government will provide the necessary funds for the purpose. "The Canadian Wheat Board will dispose of the entire Canadian surplus at the price obtainable in the wheat markets of the world. 
  • 1922  Premier Greenfield and H. W. Wood, President of the Canadian Council of Agriculture are both back in Calgary, but neither will raise the veil of secrecy that hides the Canadian Wheat Board from public gaze. 
  • 1931  The road to the creation of the proposed new Canadian Wheat Board is beset with almost insurmountable constitutional and legal difficulties, Premier Bennett told the House of Commons today, in answer to a query by John Vallance (Liberal, South Battleford) as to whether Canada is to have a Wheat Board. 
  • 1935  [Early announcement is expected of the re-organization of the Canadian Wheat Board, which is handling for the Dominion Government the marketing of a $200,000,000 surplus of wheat. John I. McFarland, who for the past four years has been Canada's wheat czar, with control of the most spectacular wheat transactions in the world's history, arrived in the Capital today to discuss with members of the Federal Cabinet reorganization plans.] 
  • 1938  Faced with the farmers' dilemma of a good crop and falling prices, the cabinet is understood to be considerably concerned over the loss which the federal treasury will have to meet when the Canadian Wheat Board has disposed of this year's crop. 
  • 1949  The Wheat Board, a Government Agency, was set up under the Canadian Wheat Board Act of July 5, 1935. Since that time it has become a large state monopoly with powers over both wheat and coarse grains grown in the three Prairie Provinces. Farmers of these Provinces are compelled to sell through the Board, which fixes the prices it will pay regardless of prevailing market values. It had its predecessors in Government boards during the First World War, and in emergency stabilization measures during the depression years of the 1930's. As now constituted, the Board has apparently become a permanent body. [...] Its deficits when they occur are paid out of public funds. [...] Its surpluses when they occur are paid to the farmers whose grain it handles. 
  • 1957  The feeling is growing in Saskatchewan, even among the farmers, that the key lies not in finding a new idea but in the application of the tried and proved old one for the disposal of surpluses: cut prices to clear them out. That is exactly what many of the farmers have done with their own stocks rather than keep them in their granaries until space at the elevators is available for marketing through the Canadian Wheat Board. A two-price system has been in effect on the Prairies for years, a higher price at the elevators which the Wheat Board pays, and the lower price to other farmers and operators of feed lots who want the grain -- at a price -- for seed or feed. 
  • 1977  The NFU reaffirmed its belief in orderly marketing as the answer to farm problems: - For grains, the NFU wants an expanded version of the Canadian Wheat Board, to be known as the Canadian Grains Board, to have jurisdiction over the sale of all principal grains and oilseed throughout the country; - For meat, it wants a national meat authority for marketing of livestock and livestock products. The authority would manage supplies and regulate imports. 
  • 1986  These crown corporations had been formed over the years to achieve a variety of public policy objectives. Corporations such as the Canadian Wheat Board were created to coordinate and assist the activities of many individual farm producers. 
  • 1996  Three highly respected agricultural economists (one from each of the Prairie provinces) have documented the significant benefits captured by the CWB's current single-desk system of marketing. Their study found that wheat producers earned an extra $265-million per year for each of the past 14 years because of the high quality and extra services the CWB could provide, thanks to the single-desk structure. 
  • 2011  It took nearly seven years in government but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has finally achieved his goal of passing legislation to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on Prairie grain sales. But whether he can act on it is still up in the air. Bill C-18 was passed at third and final reading in the Senate Thursday with the support of all the Conservatives present. 
  • 2015  Calkins defended the government's announcement in April that G3, which is partly owned by Saudi Arabia, would buy 50.1 per cent of the Canadian Wheat Board for $250 million. The rest is to be kept in trust for grain farmers, but in seven years G3 has the option to buy back the units from farmers at market value.