6 Southwest Progress Report 2012 History ... the fi nal judge on the


Grain elevators near Portreeve serve as a reminder of what industry is still vital to southwest Saskatchewan.


Graiin elev e ato ors nearn a Por rrtreeve ee serve e as a Photo by Matthew Liebenberg CWB A ew


the CW


Piecing Together the Social Fabric BY MATTHEW LIEBENBERG


n era will come to an end when prairie farmers start to harvest their crop this fall.


For the fi rst time since the Second World War, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) will not be the sole buye buyer of their wheat and barley.


er


C B’ m opoly r 80-y


For 80-year-old Henry Neufeld, who farmed in the Waldeck area in southwest Saskatchewan, the CWB ma e


WB Fo


Wald cdeck area in sout made a lot of sense.


made a lot of sens


“T e mandate was they had to sell the grain for the best price they could get and that’s a pretty good deal fo for a farmer,” he said.. “You didn’t have to worry about trying to market, see where you could fi nd the best prize,, none of that crap.” He woulld have a


“T e mandate was they had to sell the best price th y co r a farm r” y ng to ma


could get and t ,” he sa yi prize, non o e of ha cr n his s own. actualla lly l


mar et, see whe e you could c ap.”


He would have actually preferred it if more grains were part of the CWB system. He liked to grow rye, but the price for it was not always good and he had to sell it on


were par of he CW ys m. but the price for it was not sell it on his own. “I wou


uld go to o the ele my grain and he’ ed sa “He d ddidn’t know wh tw at it w


WB sy tem H liiked ot alwl ays good


tor ag nt w a


s y the price isis $1. was goi g t


y prefererred it if d a


“I would go to the elevator agent where I hauled my grain and he’d say the price is $1.25,” he recalled. “He didn’t know what it was going to do and I’d go back a month later and it was $1.24. I never knew how to sell the stuff because I couldn’t look into the future.”


1 2 ,” to d


wh 25


In contrast, the CWB appeared to him to have a


good grasp of what was happening in the market, which meant he did not have to be concerned about it.


“T ey had statistics, they knew every day how it


rained in Timbuktu, exactly how the crop is coming along, what the market is doing, everything” he said. Prof. John Herd T ompson from the History


Department at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said it would be diffi cult to exaggerate the CWB’s historical signifi cance. “In many ways the Wheat Board saved the prairie


grain economy in the 1930s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s,” he mentioned. “It was critical to the development of agriculture and maintained rural populations far more than any other system would have done.” T e Winnipeg-born historian has done extensive


research on the history of the prairie West. From 1996 to 1998 he was an expert historical witness for Agriculture Canada in three constitutional cases about the CWB. “At one time the Canadian Wheat Board was so


popular that any politician who criticized it would have ended his career,” he said. “Everybody wanted to claim responsibility for it.” T e federal government established the fi rst CWB


in July 1919 under the War Measures Act to market that year’s crop during a period of unstable market conditions. It was a success and farmers received a guaranteed price for their crop. But despite protests from farmers, the Conservative government of Arthur Meighen dissolved the CWB in 1920. Continued on Page 7


“You didn’t have to


that’s a pret h


year-old Henry Neufeld, w o f est Saskat


ew wa


While some farmers are looking forward to the new open-market system, others recall a time when there was little disagreement over the benefi ts of the CWB’s monopoly.


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