In the interests of the grain producers
Canada Grain Act Discussion Group power-point presentation
Click HereRestoring the Gold Standard (Submission to the Canada Grain Act Review)
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Click HereCanada Grain Act Discussion Group
Who We Are
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The Canada Grain Act Discussion Group (CGADG) is a farmer watchdog caucus created to defend the Canada Grain Act (CGA) and reverse ongoing drift to industry deregulation in the grain company interest.
Caucus members co-operate on a non-partisan, single issue basis to increase farmer knowledge and solidarity around the CGA and Canadian Grain Commission.
Caucus members are current and retired farm leaders and other farmers, and former farm organization staff.
CGADG is not “another new farm organization”. Members work as participants in our current farm organizations to keep strengthening of the CGA always on the agenda.
GADG membership is open to all Prairie grain producers.
CGADG organizing principles
- Identify producers most concerned about the future of the CGA and Canadian Grain Commission
- Reach out across the lines that divide the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and National Farmers Union, commodity organizations and different political affiliations
- Establish a semi-formal body – caucus – called the Canada Grain Act Discussion Group.
Canada Grain Act Discussion Group goals
- Promote better knowledge of the Canada Grain Act and Canadian Grain Commission
- Exchange producer views and concerns and foster discussion
- Circulate CGA-pertinent briefs and submissions, op-eds and letters-to-the-editor
- Promote academic interest in and study of CGA-related issues
- Convey informed farmer views to the CGC commissioners and producer organizations
- Offer critical support to the CGC and commissioners for the things they get right and knowledgeable opposition to ongoing campaigns to further weaken the Act
- Host an annual meeting in person and/or electronically featuring CGC commissioners, interested academics and other invited speakers, to elect an annual leadership and discuss and advance CGA issues and resolutions
- Work within caucus members’ parent organization to promote agreed CGADG initiatives
CGADG can have a significant industry impact based on participation by 50-100 knowledgeable and concerned farmers across the Prairies from Emerson, Manitoba to Fort St. John, BC.
Canada Grain Act Discussion Group initiatives
CGADG compared the 2021 Canada Grain Act Review submissions from the following farm organizations:
- Alberta Federation of Agriculture (AFA)
- Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS)
- Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP)
- National Farmers Union (NFU)
- Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission (Sask Wheat)
We found significant agreement and no serious disagreements in these submissions. CGADG wrote all five groups to propose:
- a Canada Grain Act Summit meeting
- a joint letter to AAFC from all five groups
- a follow up meeting with Minister MacAulay and the CGC commissioners to make common cause in Review recommendations
- a Grain Act Summit, sponsored by APAS and SaskWheat, was held in Saskatoon on March 26th in which all five farm organizations participated
Our caucus has also exchanged letters with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada requesting Minister Lawrence MacAulay make public all 66 currently confidential Canada Grain Act Review submissions. These submission should all be public, as was the case with Ottawa’s earlier Canadian Transportation Act Review and Rail Freight Service Review!
CGADG is currently exploring options for one or more academic studies to establish once and for all the accuracy of post-2012 primary
Where we stand
- Today producers no longer have any comprehensive statutory safeguard in their primary elevator transactions at all
- Reports indicate pre-2012 elevator grading was “frequently incorrect”
- A 2% grade/dockage error rate in the grain companies’ favour would cost farmers ~$300,000,000 in 2023-24
- CGADG believes the CGC may be vulnerable to a lawsuit for failing to police driveway transactions “in the interests of the grain producers” – but farmers shouldn’t have to sue the CGC to enforce its mandate!
- The CGC should commission independent studies to definitively verify the accuracy of post-2012 grades/dockage/weights
- The Canada Grain Act Review is an important – some would say, last ditch – opportunity to address these historic wrongs
Our Challenge
The Canada Grain Act has been grievously weakened in recent years and is in danger of being undermined even further. Prairie farm organizations have an important role to play but none is exclusively involved with this issue or uniquely suited to uniting farmers around the CGA. Only a single-issue caucus laser-focussed on the CGA and Commission alone has the capability to bring concerned farmers together to both protect the Act and restore much need powers that have been lost in recent years.
BRUCE DODDS
Bruce Dodds is a farm and community organizer who has worked with the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, Hudson Bay Route Association, Canadian Wheat Board Alliance and National Farmers Union. He is based at Benito, Manitoba.
CAMERON GOFF
Cameron Goff is a former elected director of the Canadian Wheat Board, Western Grains Research Foundation and Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission and former vice-president of the National Farmers Union. Cam and his wife Beverley farm near Hanley, Saskatchewan.