Adrian Measner interview on CTV

Source: CTV - News/Current Affairs Date: August 05, 2007

STEPHEN HARPER (Canadian Prime Minister): I think the message to the wheat board is clear. The message is farmers want it. Prices will go up. Farmers want high prices, and the wheat board is supposed to get high prices for farmers, so
I hope the wheat board will start working with the government to make sure this is going to happen, because it's going to happen one way or another. Whether it takes a little bit of time or a lot of time, it's going to happen.

ROBERT FIFE: That was Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the wrap-up of the Conservative caucus in Prince Edward Island. For different perspective, we're joined by Adrian Measner who was fired by the Harper government as president of the Canadian Wheat Board for his opposition to the government's policy. Mr. Measner, do you feel vindicated?

ADRIAN MEASNER (Fired From Canadian Wheat Board): Well, not really. They are a little bit two separate issues, but certainly the right decision has been made now. It means that the Harper government is going to have to follow proper
process. I know he says that he's going to continue on, but he may do that, but he's going to have to follow the laws of the land to do so.

OLIVER: Did it surprise you that the court made that ruling? You know, I ask you this in the sense of the Conservative government has always made a big thing about how they respected the right of parliament, and it turns out the
courts saying they actually didn't respect the right of parliament. They were trying to do it through executive order.

MEASNER: That's right. No, it didn't surprise me. With the information I had when I was president of the CWB, it was clear that they had to move it through parliament if they wanted to make changes. But they chose to try the order in council route, and fortunately it was challenged by the friends of the Canadian Wheat Board and by the Canadian Wheat Board itself, and that's been changed and they'll have to follow proper process now.

FIFE: But there's a larger issue here now. I mean the Prime Minister says it's going to happen one way or the other. Why wouldn't the wheat board want to work with the government to try to resolve this issue?

MEASNER: Because it's not really the government's role to make this decision. It's farmers' decision to make. And if farmers want to make that change, that's what should happen. But at this point, farmers have not said that. There needs to be a fair process, an open process to allow farmers to vote on this issue. If they choose to open the barley market up, it should open up. If they choose to keep the single desk, then the single desk should stay in place.

FIFE: Well wait a minute here. There was a plebiscite that farmers voted for, am I wrong on that?
MEASNER: There was a plebiscite, but it was not a credible process. A number of things happened through that process, they put a gag order on the Canadian Wheat Board. They had ballots going out to multiple voters, there was no official
voters list, and the questions they asked, there was three professional pollsters that said they would not ask the question that way if they wanted meaningful results. It was not a credible process. They need to have one and then abide by the results of that.

FIFE: Are you saying that they ran an election that was fraudulent, that you see, something you'd see in some third world dictatorship?

MEASNER: Not something you would expect to see in Canada, yes. There were many, many problems with the election and ltimately the result they got, they added two of the questions together to justify their actions. There needs to be a fair process put in place to allow a plebiscite to happen.

FIFE: But you do have a monopoly, don't you? I mean isn't this issue of giving farmers the choice so they either stay with the monopoly or if they can get a better price somewhere else they can go and sell it on their own. Why, what gives you guys at the Canadian Wheat Board the right to have a monopoly?

MEASNER: Well, the Canadian Wheat Board is nothing more than farmers working together to sell their products, and the wheat board is run by farmer-elected board of directors. So every two years farmers elect five directors to that board. They decide whether they want single desk candidates or whether they want open market candidates, and to date farmers have elected eight out of the ten single desk candidates, so they sent the message of what they want to happen with the organization, and that's what the organization is doing, they're following what farmers want.

FIFE: Well, look, here's what the Conservatives say. They say they do represent western Canadians, and western Canadian farmers and that, for the most part they do it because they send Conservative MPs from farming ridings for the most part
to Ottawa, and the argument I hear from Conservatives is that the wheat board is run by a bunch of bureaucrats supported by the two NDP, you know, slash, slash, wink, wink socialist governments in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and that you guys
are ignoring the will of the people.

MEASNER: Well that's not right. I'm not with the wheat board anymore, but the wheat board is run by a board of directors, and ten of those board members are elected by farmers. So farmers put those board members in place. They're the ones setting the direction for the organization. So if that's what the Harper government is saying, that is not right.

FIFE: So you're not saying that it's, this is a socialistic bureaucratic organization, because that's what they're telling people.

MEASNER: No, it is a farmers organization. It works for farmers. All of the salaries on staff at the Canadian Wheat Board are paid by farmers and it's run by farmers, and you can't explain it any better than that.

FIFE: Let's just look at this whole issue. I mean can we continue with the status quo, and I'm asking you this in a broader context because we know that grain sales, whether it's barley, but all kinds of grain sales are now, prices are really skyrocketing for a number of reasons. And a lot of farmers are saying you know what I can make, get a better buck by selling the stuff on my own. So are we not shortchanging a lot of farmers here by staying with a monopoly situation?

MEASNER: Well, basically, there's been a lot of studies done that show that the single desk selling gets the premium for farmers and gets more money for farmers. There are some farmers that say they can do better on their own. Whether that's true or not, I guess that will depend on the market situation. But ultimately it's up to farmers to decide whether they want to continue to market together or they want to do their own thing. They have chosen to date to market through the single desk, and I think as long that's the direction they want to go that's what should happen. If they choose to change that, then changes can be made.

FIFE: I just want to ask you a personal question, how devastating was it for you to be fired in that way? Can you just give us a sense of what it was like, having the government step in and fire you.

MEASNER: Yeah, well, obviously a very difficult period. Difficult because I was following the directions given to me by the armer-elected board of directors, and the government intervened. They didn't like that direction and I think they made some moves to try and take control of the board of directors, and firing me was one of those moves. So it's a tough period. I worked for the organization for 32 years, certainly have a lot of contacts internationally and in Canada, and know a lot of the farming community. But it was a change, and they had the right to do what they did. They did do it and life goes on.

FIFE: Well thank you very much, Mr. Measner.

MEASNER: Thank you.