Bill C-18 committee  Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to address this committee. I'm going to make some introductory remarks, and then Stewart and I would be pleased to answer any of your questions. I intend to focus my remarks on part 1 of Bill C-18--clauses 2 to 6, and clause 12, whi

Bill C-18 committee  Thank you, Mr. Hoback. You've covered a great deal of ground there. I have written down six or seven questions. I am going to start with your comments about an ideological battle. I want to tell you a story about the first time I met with--

Bill C-18 committee  No worries. When I met with Minister Ritz--

Bill C-18 committee  All right, and I will be brief and concise. Mr. Hoback raised the issue of ideology. I always believed that this was an organization controlled and paid for by farmers and that they should be the ones who decide its future. When I spoke to farmers this summer all across the Pra

Bill C-18 committee  Okay, thank you, Mr. Valeriote. One of the issues you mentioned, Mr. Hoback, was durum, and I think by your comments you were suggesting that the Canadian Wheat Board is a deterrent to value-adding here in Canada. I'm here to tell you that certainly isn't true. To give you just

Bill C-18 committee  Let me finish. Even if that were true—just assume for a minute that it were detrimental to establishing value-adding—the primary reason that maltsters and millers want producers out of the way is so they can access their raw product more cheaply. Let me quote from the annual rep

Bill C-18 committee  I don't have the exact numbers, but my constituents and Minister Ritz's constituents are in the same area. He was elected as a Conservative candidate. I was elected as a single desk director. Obviously, many farmers who voted Conservative also support the Canadian Wheat Board.

Bill C-18 committee  On which bill?

Bill C-18 committee  To what part of the campaign specifically, or do you want them all?

Bill C-18 committee  All right. Well, first of all, I've always been of the view that the right—

Bill C-18 committee  I'll answer the question, thank you. I've always been of the view that the right way to settle this issue was to let farmers decide, to have a fair plebiscite, as required by the current act under section 47.1. When the minister refused to do that, we thought it was incumbent up

Bill C-18 committee  I don't know where you get your numbers from, but those are the costs. We've also spent, or will spend, some limited money on a legal case.

Bill C-18 committee  We won't know that until that case is complete.

Bill C-18 committee  My point is this—

Bill C-18 committee  If this government had agreed to hold a plebiscite amongst farmers, farmers' dollars could have been saved—