The federal opposition New Democrats are asking for an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the pending sale of majority control in CWB, the former Canadian Wheat Board.
Winnipeg Centre MP Pat Martin, the party’s critic for public works and government services, announced Friday he has written to Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer requesting the debate.
“An emergency debate is required in order to allow parliamentarians to address the substantial negative consequences this decision will have on western grain producers and the competitive marketing and transport of grain in Canada,” Martin said in a release.
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“It is unacceptable that the Conservatives dismissed a bid from Canadian farmers and chose a foreign-owned company instead.”
The House of Commons, which adjourned April 2, is scheduled to resume sitting Monday at 11 a.m. ET.
Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz on Wednesday announced CWB’s sale of a 50.1 per cent ownership stake to a new company, G3 Global Grain Group, for $250 million. The deal is expected to close sometime in July, pending federal Competition Bureau approval.
The remaining 49.9 per cent stake in CWB will be held in a trust, units of which will be owned by farmers who deliver grain to CWB. The sale to G3 gives that company an option, effective in 2022, to buy the trust’s stake in CWB for market value.
G3 is majority-owned by the Canadian arm of New York-based agrifood giant Bunge, with minority ownership by a Canadian subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian government’s ag investment arm, the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC).
The “bid from Canadian farmers” to which Martin referred was a proposal CWB rejected in October from Genesis Grain and Fertilizer LP, a new organization planned by crop input buying group Farmers of North America (FNA) and sister company AgraCity.
Genesis — which Saskatoon-based FNA plans to continue to develop with farmer investment, even without CWB’s assets — had placed a valuation of $250 million on its proposal to buy CWB.
Some farmer groups such as the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and Grain Growers of Canada have hailed the G3 deal as a much-needed boost for CWB’s competitive position. Other farm groups, however, have shared Martin’s criticisms.
“With (the G3 deal), the Conservative government has accomplished the biggest transfer of wealth away from farmers in the history of Canada,” National Farmers Union president Jan Slomp said Wednesday. “The CWB’s physical assets, its commercial relationships, and its good name have all been given away.”
Another group, Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board, said Thursday on Facebook the G3 deal leaves farmers with “no opportunity to get a majority share” in CWB. — AGCanada.com Network
