Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin delivered his written judgment Tuesday in Winnipeg, clearing the way for a judge to hear the allegations on behalf of an estimated 70,000 or so western Canadian farmers who delivered grain to the wheat board’s pool accounts in 2010-11 and 2011-12.

“I think it is good news for the farmers who felt they weren’t dealt with fairly when (Agriculture Minister Gerry) Ritz and (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper were privatizing the wheat board,” Stewart Wells, a Swift Current, Sask., farmer and member of the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board, said in an interview Thursday. “The wheels of justice grind slowly but they’re still grinding.

“It’s the first major progress since the case was launched in 2012 and it’s certified so this is going to be heard in court. It’s just not going to be swept under the rug somewhere. So that’s a pretty major advancement.”

However, Wells didn’t rule out the possibility that the government and G3 will appeal Justice Martin’s decision.

An out-of-court settlement is also possible.

The Harper government government removed the CWB as the sole marketer of western Canadian wheat and barley destined for export or domestic human consumption Aug. 1, 2012.

In 2015, G3 (Global Grain Group), newly formed to subsume the CWB, agreed to invest $250.5 million and in return received the CWB’s assets from the federal government.

G3 is a joint venture firm majority-owned by the state-owned Saudi Agricultural Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC) and Bunge.

The lawsuit brought by Brookdale, Man., farmer Andrew Dennis alleges Ritz acted unlawfully by taking $150.9 million of farmers’ money from the CWB’s pool accounts to help privatize the wheat board.

One hundred and forty-five million dollars was used to triple the wheat board’s contingency fund and $5.9 million went to cover some of the transition costs.

Under the Canadian Wheat Board Act, all money collected in the CWB’s pool accounts earned from marketing farmers’ grain was required to be paid to farmers, less board operating expenses.

“What’s alleged is that Gerry Ritz… was acting illegally and not in good faith — the legal phrase is misfeasance while in public office — when he directed money to the contingency fund that we argue ought to have been paid to farmers instead,” Wells said.

“We argue that he was morally and legally wrong to be hiving off money that should have gone to the pooling accounts and been paid to farmers but instead he was trying to build up the Canadian Wheat Board as an entity so he could later on give it away to Saudi Arabia and Bunge.”

The CWB’s board of directors unanimously passed a resolution calling on the government to cover the cost of privatizing the board instead of farmers, Wells said.

“And then Ritz said in public that he would pick up all the cost, but when the (CWB’s) final annual report came out it showed that they had taken $5.9 million out of the pooling account to cover restructuring costs,” he said. “It makes no sense. It just loops back to the notion that farmers weren’t being treated fairly.”

The suit also asks for $10 million, plus interest since 2012, in damages, bringing the total compensation sought to $160.9 million, excluding interest.

“It’s not that much per individual farmer (if the suit is won),” Wells said. “It totally depends how many tonnes they (farmers) delivered to the pools in those two years, but that’s one of the reasons class actions were invented. It wouldn’t make sense for one or a very small group of farmers to take this sort of action, but it certainly makes sense to launch it as a class.”

Farmers who delivered to the pools in 2010-11 and 2011-12 are automatically part of the class action lawsuit unless they opt out, Wells said.

More information for affected farmers will be posted on a website, he added.

Wells doesn’t know when the case will be heard, but doesn’t rule out it taking another three to five years to resolve.

“They (federal government and G3) have been deliberately trying to delay this process all the way along for the last 10 years… but this is a very significant step toward getting the action certified having the representative plaintiff Andrew Dennis named in the action so he can carry it forward on behalf of all these farmers,” Wells said. “It’s a really crucial step. Without this the case couldn’t have gone anywhere.”

Wells declined to disclose how much money has been spent litigating the case so far.

“We have said all along that we are very grateful to all of the farmers that supported us when we started fundraising for this action back in very, very late 2011 and then in 2012, 2013 and 2014,” he added. ‘We wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the support of those farmers there’s no question about that. This is truly the farmers’ action. Everybody is looking forward to the result.”

While the case is about the alleged misuse of farmers’ money, it’s also about holding government to account, Wells said.

“Cabinet, through orders-in-council, can change some things but they can never override the existing legislation,” he said. “And that’s what we are arguing happened here — that Ritz was overriding the original legislation with his orders-in-council, which in turn makes his actions illegal.

“Whether they (farmers) agreed with the wheat board being a (mandatory) marketing agency or not they still didn’t deserve to have money taken from the pooling accounts and just given to the King of Saudi Arabia and Bunge.”

After taking over the CWB, the new G3, renamed G3 Canada Ltd., was 50.1 per cent owned by SALIC and Bunge and up to 49.9 per cent potentially owned by farmers, depending on how much grain they delivered to the new firm.

Farmers were to earn $5 of G3 equity for every tonne.

G3 Canada had two shareholders — G3 Global Grain Group and the farmers’ equity trust. Farmers who deliver to CWB own units in the trust and the trust owns shares in G3 Canada Limited.

After the farmers’ equity is fully allocated, or in seven years (2022), G3 Canada Ltd. can buy the equity, but isn’t obliged to.

In 2016 Reuters reported SALIC’s ownership within G3 Global Grain Group jumped to 75 per cent from 49 per cent, according to an April 28, 2016 Bunge filing.

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man.

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Jason Kenney, sworn in Tuesday as premier, named Devin Dreeshen, the MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake since last July, to handle the ag and forestry file.

Dreeshen came to the UCP’s opposition benches in a byelection following the resignation of UCP MLA Don MacIntyre and was named the opposition critic for trade. In the April 16 general election, Dreeshen easily won re-election by a spread of over 15,000 votes against NDP challenger Robyn O’Brien.

Dreeshen, the son of federal Conservative MP Earl Dreeshen, is today billed as a fifth-generation owner of the family’s farm near Pine Lake, about 30 km southeast of Red Deer.

He studied economics and political science at the University of Alberta, then served briefly as a legislative assistant in the provincial transportation and infrastructure ministry, before working from 2008 to 2015 in the office of then-federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz.

Dreeshen worked for Ritz in “issues management” and as a policy advisor on matters of grain transportation and international trade, particularly on the former Conservative government’s deregulation of Prairie wheat and barley marketing.

After the federal Conservatives’ defeat in 2015, Dreeshen returned to Alberta and joined the board of the pro-deregulation farmer group the Western Canadian Wheat Growers in 2016, serving there as a director up until his run in the 2018 provincial byelection.

According to his biography on the UCP caucus website, he then also hung out his shingle as a consultant advising ag sector stakeholders on trade issues.

Dreeshen was also documented as having worked for several months in 2016 in the U.S. as a volunteer on the election campaign of President Donald Trump. That stint isn’t mentioned in Dreeshen’s MLA biography but his byline appears on a November 2016 article for the Ottawa-based Hill Times describing his travels on the Trump campaign’s behalf.

Asked later about the experience by an Edmonton reporter for the Toronto Star, Dreeshen said he “met a lot of really great people and I think that those contacts now, as an MLA, will just serve me better to reach out and they’re our largest trading partner.”

The Wheat Growers’ current Alberta vice-president, Stephen Vandervalk, hailed Dreeshen’s appointment Tuesday as ag minister, saying it’s “appropriate that as we anticipate improvements to agriculture policy in Alberta, that we have an active farmer in the role of minister.”

Team Alberta, representing the province’s wheat, barley, pulse and canola grower commissions, said Tuesday it’s “eager to work with the new minister, the department of agriculture and forestry and the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) on matters that impact Alberta farmers.”

The provincial legislative assembly is scheduled to reconvene May 21.

Top bureaucrat remains

Kenney on Tuesday also announced the new members of the provincial deputy ministers’ council, which consists of the chief public servant for each provincial ministry.

Andre Corbould, who then-premier Rachel Notley named in March last year as deputy minister for agriculture and forestry, remains in that position as the ag ministry’s top bureaucrat.

Kenney’s other cabinet appointments Tuesday included Travis Toews, the rookie MLA for Grande Prairie-Wapiti, a cattle rancher and former president (2010-12) of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, as minister of finance.

Among other portfolios of interest to farmers, rookie Calgary MLA Tanya Fir has been named as the new minister for economic development, trade and tourism; Jason Nixon, MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre since 2015 and former opposition house leader, as environment minister; and Ric McIver, a Calgary MLA since 2012, as transportation minister, a re-appointment to that file.

As ag minister, Dreeshen will replace the New Democrats’ Oneil Carlier, who was defeated April 16 in his riding of Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland by UCP challenger Shane Getson. The NDP’s shadow cabinet hasn’t yet been announced. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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In a written ruling released Monday, Master Shayne Berthaudin of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench ruled against the government’s attempt to walk away from a putative class action, which claims more than $145 million in damages owed to farmers who delivered wheat and barley to the CWB in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 crop years, along with $10 million in punitive damages.

“This ruling puts the government’s shirt in the wringer,” Stewart Wells, a farmer at Swift Current, Sask. and chair of the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB), said in an interview Thursday.

“In the proposed class action farmers contend the former minister of agriculture, Gerry Ritz, deprived farmers of monies they should have received from the 2010 and 2011 crop years. Instead of paying farmers, we believe this money was used to sweeten the pot for whoever was going to acquire the wheat board.”

G3 Global Grain Group, a joint venture of U.S. agribusiness Bunge and Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC), acquired the CWB and its assets in 2015.

The federal government’s failure to stop the lawsuit clears the way for it being certified, Bruun, a Winnipeg lawyer, said in an interview.

“We have the paperwork filed seeking certification of the class action already,” said Bruun, adding he is confident it will be approved by the court.

Bruun represents the proposed class’ representative plaintiff, Brookdale, Man. farmer Andrew Dennis, together with Jordan Goldblatt and Louis Century, Toronto-based lawyers specializing in civil litigation and class proceedings.

Of the $151 million Dennis claims should’ve gone to farmers who delivered to the CWB, he alleges $145.2 million ended up in the CWB’s contingency fund and $5.9 million was withdrawn from the CWB’s pool accounts. The allegations have not been tested in court.

The CWB set up a contingency fund to cover losses that occurred when farmers opted to price grain sales outside the CWB’s pools. It was funded when transactions earned more than the price farmers sold at. The fund was meant to break even over time.

“In order to fund the transformation of the board to a privately held entity, the defendants engaged in a course of conduct intended to reduce payments to farmers who had sold and delivered grain to the board during the class period and to increase the monies in the contingency fund,” Dennis’ statement of claim alleges.

The federal Canadian Wheat Board Act didn’t allow the wheat board to use money earned from its pool accounts for anything other than covering its operating expenses. Gerry Ritz, the federal agriculture minister at the time, said the government would cover the costs of transitioning the CWB to an entity that could be acquired by a private company.

“Nevertheless, the board improperly charged $5.9 million in transition costs to the pool accounts, which reduced the amount that was available to producers upon payment of their contracts during the 2011-2012 crop year,” the claim alleges.

“The plaintiff (Dennis) pleads that the board breached its duty of good faith to the class (farmers who delivered to the CWB) by ignoring its obligations to the producers, and by allocating money to the Contingency Fund that otherwise would have been paid to the pool account contract holders.”

‘Not reason enough’

Dennis’ claim, Berthaudin wrote, alleges regulations passed by the federal government raised the upper limit of funds that could be credited from the Contigency Fund, to $200 million from $60 million, after which $145.248 million, otherwise due to be paid to the class, was diverted to the fund.

The government’s argument behind its motion to strike out the statement of claim, Berthaudin wrote, was that the regulations passed were “statutorily authorized to be passed and are validly enacted (and thus) cannot constitute unlawful conduct.”

However, it’s “not plain and obvious to me that the plaintiff could not establish at trial that there was an unauthorized purpose behind the passage of the regulations and the flowing of funds from the pool account to the contingency fund,” he wrote in his dismissal of the government’s motion.

“More particulars may become apparent once documentary discovery has occurred, but that is not reason enough to conclude that the pleading of material facts thus far is insufficient.”

Further, Berthaudin wrote, the government’s other argument — that Dennis’ claim constitutes an abuse of process — relies on decisions from previous CWB-related proceedings, but the judge found the “underlying factual allegations” in this claim are different from those seen in previous rulings.

The judge specifically noted a 2013 Federal Court ruling which shot down most of a previous class action suit filed by Dennis and other farmers. In that ruling, the Federal Court “specifically did not strike out such claims, allowing them to proceed,” Berthaudin wrote.

FCWB, a longtime opponent of the former Conservative government’s deregulation of the CWB’s single desk marketing authority, is backing the proposed class action suit.

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man. Follow him at @AllanReporter on Twitter. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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The MP for the western Saskatchewan riding of Battlefords-Lloydminster since 1997, Ritz announced via Twitter Thursday morning that he “will not be returning to my seat in the House of Commons this fall.” The Commons resumes sitting Sept. 18.

Ritz, who turned 66 earlier this month, didn’t give a specific reason for his departure in his brief statement. In an interview with the Manitoba Co-operator’s Allan Dawson after the 2015 election, Ritz said his wife didn’t want him to run again, but he had unfinished business on the ag file.

In Thursday’s statement, he thanked his constituents, colleagues in both the House and Senate, the civil service and staff with whom he worked as an MP and as agriculture minister.

“They have all proved themselves to be exceptional people, with the best interest of our great country Canada at heart,” he wrote.

Fellow Saskatchewan Tory MP Randy Hoback thanked Ritz via Twitter on Thursday, replying that Ritz “made being a farmer profitable and cool.” B.C. Tory MP Dan Albas tweeted that the party will miss Ritz’s “stand-up get-it-done style” in caucus.

Ritz, who lives at Brightsand Lake, about 125 km north of North Battleford, most recently served as the Conservatives’ critic for international trade under interim Tory leader Rona Ambrose. He was not on the shadow cabinet roster announced Wednesday by the party’s new leader, fellow Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer.

A farmer, general contractor and newspaper publisher, Ritz’s career in federal politics dates back to before the 1993 federal election, when he served as campaign manager for Elwin Hermanson, the Reform Party MP for what was then Kindersley-Lloydminster.

After the 1993 election, Ritz served as constituency co-ordinator for Hermanson. As ag minister, Ritz appointed Hermanson in 2008 to a stint as chief commissioner for the Canadian Grain Commission.

After Hermanson departed for provincial politics, Ritz ran for federal office himself, replacing Hermanson as the Reform Party MP in the 1997 election. He ran successfully under the Canadian Alliance banner in 2000 and has been the Conservative MP since 2004.

Before Harper’s Tories won government in 2006, Ritz served as the associate finance critic (1997-2000), then as associate ag critic (2000-02), deputy whip, (2001-02), public works critic (2002-03) and lead ag critic (2003-04).

After Ritz replaced Chuck Strahl as the Tories’ minister for agriculture and the Canadian Wheat Board in 2007, he oversaw a long-time Tory policy goal through to completion, leading the deregulation of the CWB’s single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley and the privatization of the CWB into what’s now G3 Canada.

Elsewhere on the long list of Ritz’s impacts on Canada’s ag sector, he was one of the point men in the federal response against the U.S. government’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law, leading to the law’s eventual repeal on beef and pork in late 2015 following years of challenges and appeals at the World Trade Organization.

Ritz, as ag minister, also helped spearhead the federal response to a massive rail freight backlog on Prairie grain, legislating mandatory minimum grain handles and expanded interswitching on Canada’s Big Two railways in 2014.

He also oversaw the government’s construction of the Growing Forward ag policy funding framework (2008-13) and its successor, GF2 (2013-18). GF and GF2, jointly funded by the federal, provincial and territorial governments, both evolved from the previous Liberal government’s repackaging of agriculture supports and risk management programming into the Agriculture Policy Framework (APF) in 2003. –– AGCanada.com Network

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Andrew Scheer, elected in May as the Tories’ new leader, on Wednesday announced his first shadow cabinet with Luc Berthold, the MP for Megantic-L’Erable, as agriculture and agri-food critic and John Barlow, MP for the southwestern Alberta riding of Foothills, as associate ag critic.

When the House of Commons resumes sitting Sept. 18, Berthold replaces southwestern Saskatchewan MP David Anderson as agriculture critic.

Neither Anderson nor Gerry Ritz — a fellow Saskatchewan MP and the Tories’ last agriculture minister in Stephen Harper’s government — were named to Scheer’s shadow cabinet Wednesday. Chris Warkentin, the ag critic before Anderson, remains in his post as deputy opposition House leader and question period co-ordinator.

Berthold, a leadership coach and trainer since 2013, came into federal politics in the October 2015 election, winning the seat held since 2006 by Christian Paradis, a Tory cabinet minister — including a stint as minister of state for agriculture — who opted not to run again.

Berthold, whose riding includes the communities of Thetford Mines and Lac Megantic, served as an assistant critic for infrastructure and communities and, from last October until now, as an assistant critic for transport and rail safety.

Before entering politics Berthold worked as a reporter for Thetford Mines radio station CKLD (now Passion 105.5) and as an editor for the community’s Courrier Frontenac newspaper before becoming a press attache for provincial Liberal MNA Nathalie Normandeau.

After the Quebec Liberals regained government in 2003, Berthold gradually levelled up to interim communications director for the party. He also entered local politics in 2006 when he was elected mayor of Thetford Mines, a post from which he stepped down in 2013.

Barlow, the new associate ag critic, grew up in the Regina area and also worked as a journalist and editor, at Alberta newspapers including the High River Times and the Okotoks Western Wheel.

Barlow later became senior editor for the southern Alberta region for Great West Newspapers (a joint venture between Jamison Newspapers and Glacier Media, owner of this website) before entering federal politics in June 2014, winning a byelection to replace retiring Tory MP Ted Menzies in what was then the Macleod riding.

Barlow held the riding, now renamed Foothills, for the Tories in 2015 and served from last October until now as the party’s critic for interprovincial trade. He also served as vice-chair for the Commons standing committee on natural resources.

Describing the overall critics’ cabinet as “united, energized and diverse,” Scheer said Wednesday the party will “arrive in Ottawa in the fall with one clear message to Canadians: that we are ready to form the next government of Canada.”

Among other portfolios of interest to farmers, Ontario MP Dean Allison will be Scheer’s critic for international trade; Saskatchewan MP Kelly Block, for transport; Abbotsford MP Ed Fast, environment and climate change; and British Columbia MP Dan Albas, for small business. — AGCanada.com Network

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Earlier this week, the World Trade Organization authorized an annual retaliation level of $1.055 billion for Canada, though that was considerably less than what Canada had sought.

The dispute, fought at the WTO since late 2008, stems from the U.S. requirement that retail outlets label meat with information about its origin. Canada has argued that country-of-origin labeling (COOL) has led to fewer of its cattle and pigs being slaughtered in the U.S., or bought at discounts to U.S.-born and -raised livestock.

“We would rather not have to engage in retaliatory measures, but we certainly will, to stand up for our farmers, to stand up for Canadians who have been unfairly addressed and affected by this legislation,” Trudeau told reporters.

“We will continue to make sure that this gets fixed and we’re going to work with Americans, or against them, to make sure that it happens.”

Asked what impact retaliation might have on the relationship between the neighbouring countries, Trudeau said, “The (U.S.) president understands that the relationship between Canada and the U.S. is far greater than any one issue.”

Passed by the U.S. government in 2008 and implemented in 2009, mandatory COOL requires country-of-origin labelling for beef, pork, lamb, chicken and goat meat, and certain perishable commodities sold at retail outlets in the U.S.

Canada’s opposition Conservatives, who while in government spearheaded the country’s challenges of COOL at the WTO, on Wednesday urged the Liberal government to maintain pressure on U.S. lawmakers, some of whom may soon see a bill to repeal COOL.

The Tories’ international trade critic, former agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, noted Wednesday each member of the U.S. Senate has received a letter from about 250 U.S. companies and trade associations supporting Canada’s stance on COOL.

Ritz urged Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland to “immediately identify the first U.S. goods Canada intends to impose retaliatory measure on, and keep pressure on the U.S. Senate until they repeal COOL.”

The Tories, while in government, drafted Canada’s shortlist of proposed retaliatory tariffs, aimed mainly at U.S. live cattle and hogs and fresh and frozen beef and pork products.

The list also called for tariffs on U.S. cereal, bread, pasta, frozen potatoes, frozen orange juice, wine, cheese, cocoa, apples, cherries, fowl, maple syrup, ketchup, sugars, glucose and fructose and some other food- and non-food-related wares.

The U.S. House of Representatives in June passed a bill calling for COOL to be repealed.

The Tories’ agriculture critic Chris Warkentin on Wednesday also called on Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay to “stop waiting for U.S. inaction and start taking action on behalf of Canadian farmers and ranchers to end these blatantly protectionist rules.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Leah Schnurr in Ottawa. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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Chris Warkentin, the Conservatives’ MP for Peace River since 2006 and, as of last month, the MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, was named Friday by interim leader Rona Ambrose as the critic for agriculture and agri-food, with Jacques Gourde, the MP for Levis-Lotbiniere, as deputy ag critic.

Raised on a farm near Debolt, Alta., Warkentin owned and operated a custom homebuilding company before entering politics. In the closing year of Stephen Harper’s government, Warkentin moved up from the backbench in February as parliamentary secretary for public works and government services.

From 2012 until this year, Warkentin also served as chair of the Commons standing committee on Aboriginal affairs and northern development.

During his stint on the government benches, Warkentin was also credited for helping to promote and pass then-Vancouver MP John Weston’s private member’s bill, to criminalize procurement of “precursor” chemicals for the manufacture of illegal drugs such as crystal meth and ecstasy.

Gourde, a Quebec farmer and a Tory MP since 2006, comes to the deputy critic role with experience on the file, having served as parliamentary secretary for agriculture and agri-food (2006-07) under then-ag minister Chuck Strahl, and as a member of the Commons standing committee on agriculture during that time.

As ag critics, Warkentin and Gourde will face veteran Liberal MP Lawrence MacAulay as ag minister, and Quebec MPs Ruth Ellen Brosseau and Simon Marcil as the ag critics for the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois respectively.

Among other critic portfolios of interest to farmers, Ambrose has moved the Conservatives’ long-time agriculture minister, northwestern Saskatchewan MP Gerry Ritz, to the international trade file. Southwestern Ontario MP Dave Van Kesteren will serve as deputy trade critic.

Ambrose has also named Bev Shipley, a southwestern Ontario farmer, an MP since 2006 and a former chair of the Commons ag committee (2013-15), as the party’s rural affairs critic. Rookie northwestern Alberta MP Arnold Viersen will be deputy rural affairs critic.

Kelly Block, a Saskatoon-area MP since 2008, was named Friday as the Conservatives’ critic for transport. Block had previously served as parliamentary secretary for natural resources (2013-15). — AGCanada.com Network

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Whoever Justin Trudeau selects will find Gerry Ritz a tough act to follow. During his eight years in the portfolio, he has put an increasing production and export stamp on the industry. And he caught a lucky bounce with strong commodity prices although the livestock sector had tough times.

Ritz flew around the globe more times than anyone can count promoting Canadian farm and food products. He can recite seemingly endless facts and figures about Canadian agri-food. He did a lot to convince the agriculture and food sectors into realizing they are partners in one of Canada’s most significant industries.

Despite his accomplishments and the support he gathered in the agri-food sector, he rarely received the credit he deserved from his own government. After all he did to promote the would-be Canada-Europe free trade deal, he wasn’t included in the herd of ministers who announced its completion.

The only veteran members of the Trudeau team with a connection to agriculture are Ralph Goodale, a former ag minister and the party’s deputy leader, and Wayne Easter. He has deep roots in farming and cabinet experience which will likely land him a senior cabinet post. Mark Eyking was the Liberal agriculture critic for the last few years but his Nova Scotia riding is too far removed from mainstream Canadian agriculture. He’s expected to land a regional portfolio.

Insiders note that Trudeau, who made a good impression on delegates in an address to the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture in 2014, thinks of the agri-food sector as an agriculture, food and consumer continuum. As he has mostly urban MPs, he may have no choice but to select an urban MP.

The insiders expect the Liberals’ food platform, released during the campaign, will become required reading for everyone in the sector.

Ritz, who was first elected in 1997, served as Reform ag critic, then the Conservative chair of the Commons agriculture committee before being appointed to cabinet. He is well liked among farm organizations except for the NFU, which is still smarting over the end of the Canadian Wheat Board. It’s the same amongst the myriad of organizations involved in the food and beverage sector.

From a personal perspective, Ritz was remarkable in that unlike most of his prickly Harper cabinet colleagues, he retained a sense of humour and was always civil in dealings with the media, political opponents and critics. A sense of humour is a rare commodity in politics but he ranked with Don Jamieson and Herb Gray in finding the amusing side of many issues. It showed through during the CFA’s agriculture issues debate a couple of weeks ago.

That said, he missed two opportunities to put this respect to good use.

One was in October 2013, when CN CEO Claude Mongeau rang the alarm about a massive Prairie crop that would require a lot of co-operation to ship. Two months later Ritz was still insisting the grain was moving when it wasn’t. Ritz should have jumped on Mongeau’s comment to convene a meeting of farm groups, grain companies and the railways to get the grain moving. He had the creds to do that.

The other was supply management. Dairy supply management has been around for 40 years and the poultry boards aren’t far behind. They were designed for a much different agriculture than we now have. Ritz could have used his good standing with the boards to have the Commons or Senate agriculture committee take a long hard look at what works and what doesn’t. This should be an exercise in what changes are needed to make supply management relevant to 2020, not 1970.

Of course, even if he had wanted to take either initiative, there’s no guarantee the cabinet would have backed him.

Hopefully the history books will give Gerry his due.

— Alex Binkley is a member of the Parliamentary press gallery in Ottawa and a freelance reporter on federal agriculture, food safety and transportation policy and other issues for newspapers and farm journals across Canada and abroad. Follow him at @AlexBinkleyWrit on Twitter.

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As of Tuesday morning, prime minister-elect Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were elected or leading in 184 of 338 seats, for a decisive majority following Monday’s federal election. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives return to opposition, elected or leading in 99 seats.

Thomas Mulcair’s New Democrats are demoted to second opposition, elected or leading in 44 seats, followed by the Bloc Quebecois in 10, and the Green Party, whose leader Elizabeth May hung onto the party’s lone seat.

The Liberals, who’d had just 34 seats after the 2011 election, will return to power with a largely rookie caucus, but their returning veterans carry years of experience on the agriculture file.

Ralph Goodale, the Liberals’ agriculture minister from 1993 to 1997 and minister for the Canadian Wheat Board from 1993 to 2003, easily held his riding of Regina-Wascana on Monday night by a spread of more than 10,000 votes over the Tories’ Michael Kram.

Goodale, who’d started his federal political career in 1974 as a rookie MP for then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, returned to Regina in 1986 as leader of the provincial Liberals. He rose through cabinet during the Chretien administration and handled the finance file during Paul Martin’s short stint as prime minister (2003-06).

Paul Martin’s parliamentary secretary for agriculture and agri-food will also return to Ottawa. Wayne Easter, the MP for the Prince Edward Island riding of Malpeque since 1993, easily held his seat by a 10,003-vote margin over Tory candidate Stephen Stewart.

Easter, who led Canada’s National Farmers Union (NFU) for 11 years before entering politics, was the parliamentary ag secretary from 2003 to 2006. On the opposition benches, he served as the Liberals’ critic for agriculture and the CWB (2006-11) and for international trade (2011-13).

The Liberals’ incumbent agriculture and agri-food critic since 2013, Nova Scotia MP Mark Eyking, also returns to the Commons, handily winning his riding of Sydney-Victoria by over 24,800 votes over NDP contender Monika Dutt.

Eyking, who with his wife Pam farmed and earned the Outstanding Young Farmers of Nova Scotia award before he entered politics, also served as Martin’s parliamentary secretary for agriculture and agri-food (2003-04) and for international trade (2004-06). On the second opposition bench, Eyking also served as critic for foreign affairs (2007) and rural affairs (2010-11).

Among other files of interest to farmers, the Liberals’ critic for international trade, Toronto MP Chrystia Freeland, will return in the redrawn riding of University-Rosedale, while their transport critic, David McGuinty, held his riding of Ottawa South.

Opposition

The Conservatives head back to the opposition with most of their bench strength on the agriculture file intact, led by their incumbent agriculture minister Gerry Ritz.

Ritz on Monday easily held his western Saskatchewan riding of Battlefords-Lloydminster by a spread of more than 14,600 votes over NDP challenger Glenn Tait, a grain farmer involved in both the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission and the NFU.

Other Tory MPs well known for their work on the ag file will also return to the Commons on the opposition side, among them southern Ontario MP Bev Shipley (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex), the incumbent chair of the Commons’ standing committee on agriculture.

Previous ag critics and standing ag committee members such as Larry Maguire (Brandon-Souris, Man.), Blake Richards (Banff—Airdrie, Alta.), Bob Zimmer (Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, Alta.), Larry Miller (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, Ont.), Earl Dreeshen (Red Deer—Mountain View, Alta.), David Anderson (Cypress Hills—Grasslands, Sask.) and Randy Hoback (Prince Albert, Sask.) will also return for the Tories.

Harper’s minister of state for small business, tourism and agriculture (2013-15), veteran Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, also held his riding of Beauce by a spread of more than 20,000 votes over Liberal contender Adam Veilleux. Former parliamentary ag secretary (2006-07) Jacques Gourde held his riding of Levis-Lotbiniere by a spread of almost 18,000 votes over the Liberals’ Claude Boucher.

Tory MPs who lost their seats Monday include former parliamentary ag secretary Pierre Lemieux (Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, Ont.) and former New Brunswick ag minister Rodney Weston (Saint John-Rothesay, N.B.).

The Tories’ incumbent transport minister, Lisa Raitt, held her southern Ontario riding of Milton; the party’s incumbent minister for international trade, Ed Fast, also hung onto his B.C. riding of Abbotsford.

NDP critics out

Monday’s election also cost the federal New Democrats their lead agriculture critic. Malcolm Allen, who had represented the Niagara-area riding of Welland since 2008, lost in the redrawn riding of Niagara Centre by over 2,300 votes against Liberal contender Vance Badawey.

Pat Martin, the veteran NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre since 1997, who served as critic (2011-13) and assistant/associate critic (2007-11) for the Canadian Wheat Board, was also unseated, losing by a spread of almost 9,000 votes against Liberal contender Robert-Falcon Ouelette.

The NDP’s remaining caucus, while light on experience in the agriculture file, still includes its incumbent deputy ag critic. Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who won the riding of Berthier-Maskinonge as a rookie for the NDP in 2011, held the riding Monday night by almost 9,000 votes over Bloc Quebecois contender Yves Perron.

Don Davies, the NDP’s critic for international trade, hung onto his riding of Vancouver-Kingsway on Monday night; the party’s transport critic, Toronto MP Olivia Chow, lost her riding of Spadina-Fort York to Liberal contender Adam Vaughan.

The Bloc Quebecois, while also light on ag experience in its slightly larger new caucus of 10 MPs, still includes veteran Louis Plamondon, a former Progressive Conservative MP who helped found the Bloc in 1991 and served as its ag critic briefly in 2004.

Plamondon, who sat on the Commons standing ag committee for the Tories (1984-86) and again for the Bloc from 2002 to 2004, easily held his riding of Becancour-Nicolet-Saurel against Liberal contender Claude Carpentier by a spread of over 8,000 votes. — AGCanada.com Network

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Pressure from trading partners and strong regional support in principle for supply management are nothing new. But Canada’s annual ag ministers’ meeting, held this week in Charlottetown, wrapped ahead of international talks starting later next week on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The TPP, a proposed 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal, includes not only Canada but major dairy and poultry exporting nations such as the U.S. and New Zealand. Negotiators are to meet July 24-27 in Maui, followed by a ministerial meeting July 28-31.

Canada also faces domestic pressure to stay at the TPP negotiating table, from beef, pork and grain producers aiming not just to expand but to preserve their access to TPP markets such as Japan.

In that context, Quebec’s Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis said Friday, Canada’s provincial ag ministers “unanimously” recognized the importance of maintaining the integrity of the supply management system, particularly as it relates to TPP negotiations.

“It’s a clear message that the ministers gave today,” he said in a statement separate from the ministers’ joint release, noting their support comes at a “crucial moment” in TPP talks.

The ministers recognize the need to remove trade barriers for Canadian goods, but “not at the expense of the supply management system,” Prince Edward Island’s Alan McIsaac, the meeting’s host and co-chair, said on a conference call with reporters Friday morning.

“We see value in the supply management system in Canada and we don’t want that tampered with.”

Asked about a resolution at this week’s Dairy Farmers of Canada annual general meeting in Vancouver, where delegates unanimously called for no concessions on supply management in TPP talks, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said “I’d be shocked if they (the delegates) weren’t unanimous.”

However, he said, international trade talks remain “very much a balancing act,” and added that Canada as a country does not negotiate trade pacts in public.

Generally, Ritz and the provincial ministers said they “reaffirmed support for developing new markets around the world for Canadian products, including through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while continuing to preserve the integrity of the supply management system.”

Bee health

Among other topics, Ritz said, ministers made commitments to “ongoing activities on many fronts” to preserve bee health in Canada.

The ministers jointly said they “discussed the fact that a healthy and sustainable agriculture sector depends both on bee health and on controlling pests,” and also “agreed on the need for policies that are based on sound principles of science, which are internationally recognized and respected.”

Ritz also noted he and the provincial ministers are looking forward to the upcoming accelerated review of the Canada Transportation Act, and jointly emphasized “the importance of efficient transportation systems in order for Canada to be a reliable supplier of agriculture and agri-food products to customers around the world.”

Ritz, later Friday, also called a press conference to be held Monday in Winnipeg, to announce “another step toward strengthening the grain handling and transportation system,” with input from the government-backed Crop Logistics Working Group.

The ministers on Friday also jointly acknowledged “adverse weather conditions” farmers now face in several areas, and pledged to continue to “work together to ensure existing programs deliver the needed support.”

Ritz, on Friday’s call, reiterated crop insurance programs are farmers’ first line of defense, and noted crop assessments are already underway in dry areas. He also noted rains in recent days in some of those areas, which are “not going to make it a bumper crop” but may leave many fields in better shape than otherwise feared.

Tampering

The ministers also discussed “growing concern about recent challenges with food and farm tampering,” with Ritz noting new food safety provisions authorizing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to take enforcement action against anyone tampering with or threatening to tamper with food commodities.

Penalties for a first-time food tampering offense now sit at up to 18 months imprisonment and up to $500,000 in fines, Ritz said.

Food tampering has been a major issue for months across Atlantic Canada, where consumers in several cases have found nails and needles that appear to have been shoved into potatoes. RCMP are still investigating, Ritz said.

The federal and provincial governments also recently pledged funding for growers and packers to install foreign material detectors. Some potato operations have been shut down for six weeks to put the new equipment in place, McIsaac said Friday.

Ritz, who described such tamperers as “food terrorists,” said Friday the ministers “look forward to finding the scoundrels responsible and throwing the full force of the law at them.”

In late June, the P.E.I. Potato Board pledged a reward of $500,000 for any information provided between then and Aug. 15 leading to an arrest and conviction for potato tampering. — AGCanada.com Network

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