Okay, I shall move it, Mr. Chair, and I'll read it into the record and why. This comes about as a result of Mr. Hoback's original resolution, Mr. Chair.
The motion is that the Chair of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food contact the office of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, in writing, requesting answers to the following questions:
1. When did the Minister of Agriculture or his department receive the Canadian Wheat Board's financial statement which he tabled in the House on February 11, 2009? Were those financial statements reviewed by the Minister or officials of his department or any other department prior to their being tabled and was the Minister provided with a report?
2. When did the Minister first contact the CWB concerning the issue of the contingency fund issue which he expressed such concern about on February 11th?
3. Did the Minister call upon the Auditor General to examine the issue of the contingency fund issue, and if not, why not?
4. Is the Minister prepared to state in writing that he is questioning the audit of the CWB's Financial Statements he tabled in the House on February 11, 2009 given that he and members of the government have made public statements drawing that audit and its findings into question? If he has found no fault with the audit will he state that in writing?
5.The Minister stated that in the House on February 11, 2009 at p. 679 of Hansard referring to western Canadian farmers that “they asked me to point out these flaws”. When did these “farmers” contact the Minister, were they members of the CWB's Board of Directors? If not, did they have access to the CWB financial statements prior to the Minister tabling them in the House?
6. And that the Chair of the Committee request that the response to each of these questions from the office of the Minister be provided to the Clerk of the Committee no later than March 9, 2009.
I so move, Mr. Chair.
The only point l will make is that this is an extremely serious issue in that the minister has responsibility for the Canadian Wheat Board, and so does the parliamentary secretary. To table a report and basically attack the Canadian Wheat Board when it has had the best returns ever.... In fact, as many state, the board outperformed its international competitors--an outstanding performance that should be recognized even by the board's most strident critics.
The Canadian Wheat Board itself sent out a letter on March 3, or a press release, in which it says: “Unfortunately, certain individuals and groups have made selective use of figures in the CWB annual report to publicize misleading information about CWB financial performance for western Canadian producers”, Mr. White said. “Many of these comments are untrue and damaging to the commercial reputation of this organization.”
It is an issue, as I understand it, Mr. Chair, that is impacting our commercial reputation abroad. So for those reasons, I think we need some answers from the minister relative to the issues I've raised in the motion.