One of the big issues with the Wheat Board is that there's a huge lack of transparency. We can't see the price they're selling our wheat for. How many directors are there, nine? Those are the only guys who can see what price this grain is being sold at.
I've read some reports. I know guys have done some research trying to figure out where they've been.... Basically, there's evidence that they've been undercutting and selling wheat cheaper to other countries than they should be.
There was a tender, I think it was to Egypt, about six months ago. They researched this and found the price of the tenders from the U.S. and from Australia, and Canada's tender came in about $25 a tonne below theirs. There's no reason to cut that far below, just to get the sale. I guess that's a big issue that proves that the Canadian Wheat Board is costing us money.
As for multinationals coming in and taking over, correct me if I'm wrong, but we sell all of our other grain to the multinational corporations and we're doing okay with that. Any grain that's sold is based on a futures price minus a basis. There's an argument that there should be more competition, but you shop around and get the best basis you can. If wheat were in that same situation, I think we could do better with it.
We have clear price signals further out. For example, yesterday I priced new crop canola for next March. I have a price that I know I'm going to get today, I know when I'm going to deliver it, and I know my cashflow requirements. You can't really do that with wheat. I guess that's one of the biggest issues, the transparency and being able to sell a long way out, if you want to, and knowing exactly what you're going to get for it.