OTTAWA, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Canada's Conservative government has introduced legislation with a goal of dismantling the World War II-era Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly.
The act introduced in Ottawa Tuesday by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz sets a five-year timetable to wind down the board through which the country's 70,000 wheat and barley farmers market their crops.
The board, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the last remaining agricultural monopoly in the world, the Financial Post reported.
Conservatives have been saying for seven years they want the board abolished, but lacked a parliamentary majority. They have one now and agriculture officials said the bill should be passed into law before the end of December.
At a news conference, Ritz downplayed some farmers' concerns grain prices would go into a free-fall.
"The sky will not fall in an open market," he said. "Instead, the sky will be the limit."
The board has 15 members, 10 of whom are elected by farmers. The bill in Parliament proposes reducing that number to five and with government financial and policy oversight, phasing the board out entirely within five years.
The board was originally created in 1943 to provide Britain with low cost wheat at the height of World War II.
