July 26, 2006

"I would like to commend the federal minister of agriculture Chuck Strahl and Parliamentary Secretary David Anderson for their vision and initiative aimed at exploring innovative new solutions for expanding market opportunities for Canadian grain producers and for modernizing Canada's grain marketing system.

The upcoming meeting hosted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to discuss the transition to a new marketing choice environment will allow key stakeholders to explore options for moving forward. Many meetings have been held where the status quo has been touted as the answer, but the status quo has not provided the results progressive producers need.

Producers know that something needs to change and that change should be full marketing choice for wheat and barley. Those who wish to protect the status quo and hinder the development of value-added sectors of our grain industry should not vilify proponents of progressive competition in the western Canadian grain industry.

The Government of Alberta conducted a number of studies exploring options and considerations for a marketing choice environment. The final conclusions are consistent. With a properly planned transition, there are no insurmountable impediments to achieving marketing choice as we envision it. In fact, we believe producers across western Canada welcome the notion of competition to improve the economic sustainability of the market and the performance of the Canadian Wheat Board."