CALGARY - Ottawa will move quickly to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on barley sales if farmers vote strongly in favour of the plan, Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said Friday.
"If farmers speak out loud and clear for more marketing choice, they're not going to want to dilly-dally, and neither am I," Strahl said Friday in Calgary.
The federal government's plebiscite on the wheat board's monopoly was mailed out to barley growers on Feb. 7 and must be returned by March 13.
While no specific dates were given, Strahl said Friday that he expected to know results by the end of March.
The minister said his hope was to bring marketing choice to barley growers "as soon as possible" and that he has already asked the wheat board to put together a business plan for survival in a competitive marketplace.
Strahl said he expected the wheat board to comply.
"I can't imagine the wheat board saying they will not deal in this product," he said following a speech to the Western Barley Growers Association conference in Calgary Friday.
"And I think farmers would be outraged if they said they won't do it."
Strahl told the barley growers group, which is overwhelmingly in favour of more marketing choices for their crops, that ending the wheat board's monopoly is the best way for farmers to maximize their returns.
The Conservatives are following through on an election promise to let farmers market their own wheat and barley. Strahl has promised a plebiscite on wheat sales at a later date.
But the barley plebiscite has already been plagued with controversy.
Wheat board supporters have railed against the fact the plebiscite gives farmers three choices: to maintain the board's monopoly, to scrap the board's role as a barley marketer, or to allow the board to be an active participant in a free market.
The wheat board has said the ballot gives farmers a false impression that the board can survive without its monopoly in the face of competition from large multinational grain companies.
But Strahl reiterated Friday that he believes the wheat board can remain viable and wants it to be one of the options that farmers have to sell their barley.
The minister also continued to be vague on what percentage of the vote he would require to move ahead with wheat board reforms, saying the plebiscite was a non-binding way to provide advice.
"The data will be available to anyone but it's up to me to say what this advice means."
