Bill C-72

If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.

PDF

	RECOMMENDATION
	His Excellency the Governor General recommends to the House of Commons the appropriation of public revenue under the circumstances, in the manner and for the purposes set out in a measure entitled ``An Act to amend the Canadian Wheat Board Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts''.
	SUMMARY
	This enactment makes changes to the Canadian Wheat Board in the areas of corporate governance and operational flexibility. It replaces the commissioner structure of senior management with a board of directors and a president. On the election by farmers of one or more directors to the board, the Canadian Wheat Board ceases to be an agent of Her Majesty, however, borrowings will continue to be guaranteed by the federal government. In the area of operations, the Canadian Wheat Board will be authorized to buy grain and reimburse farmers for grain on more flexible terms. A contingency fund, established by the Canadian Wheat Board, will support certain of these operations.
	EXPLANATORY NOTES
	Canadian Wheat Board Act
	Clause 1: (1) The definition ``Board'' in subsection 2(1) reads as follows:
	``Board'' means The Canadian Wheat Board established by section 3;
	(2) The definition ``order'' in subsection 2(1) reads as follows:
	``order'' means any order of the Board made under this Act and includes ``instructions to the trade'' issued by the Board;
	(3) The definition ``designated area'' in subsection 2(1) reads as follows:
	``designated area'' means that area comprised by the Provinces of Man itoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and those parts of the Province of British Columbia known as the Peace River District and the Creston- Wynndel Areas, and such other areas as the Board may designate un der subsection (3);
	(4) The definition ``Board'' in subsection 2(1) reads as follows:
	``Board'' means The Canadian Wheat Board established by section 3;
	(5) New.
	(6) New.
	(7) New.
	(8) Subsection 2(3) reads as follows:
	(3) The Board may, by order, designate parts of the Province of British Columbia, other than the Peace River District and the Creston- Wynndel Areas, and parts of the Province of Ontario lying in the Western Division that are included in the designated area for the purposes of this Act.
	Clause 2: New.
	Clause 3: Sections 3.1 to 3.94 are new. Section 3 and the heading before it read as follows:
	Constitution of the Board
	3. (1) There is hereby established a board called The Canadian Wheat Board, which shall consist of not fewer than three or more than five commissioners appointed by the Governor in Council.
	(2) One of the commissioners shall be appointed Chief Commission er and another Assistant Chief Commissioner, and at sessions of the Board the Chief Commissioner, and in the Chief Commissioner's absence the Assistant Chief Commissioner, shall preside.
	(3) Each commissioner holds office during good behaviour but may be removed for cause at any time by the Governor in Council, but no commissioner shall hold office after attaining the age of seventy years.
	(4) The salaries of the commissioners shall be fixed by the Governor in Council.
	(5) Two commissioners constitute a quorum.
	(6) The headquarters of the Board shall be at the city of Winnipeg in the Province of Manitoba.
	Clause 4: Subsections 4(2) and (3) read as follows:
	(2) The Board is, for all purposes, an agent of Her Majesty in right of Canada, and it may exercise its powers under this Act only as an agent of Her Majesty in right of Canada.
	(3) Actions, suits or other legal proceedings in respect of any right or obligation acquired or incurred by the Board on behalf of Her Majesty, whether in its name or in the name of Her Majesty, may be brought or taken by or against the Board, in the name of the Board, in any court that would have jurisdiction if the Board were not an agent of Her Majesty.
	Clause 5: The heading before section 5 reads as follows:
	Object and Powers
	Clause 6: (1) and (2) Paragraphs 6(1)(c.01) and (c.2) to (c.4) are new. The relevant portion of section 6 reads as follows:
	6. The Board possesses the following powers:
	...
	(c) subject to the approval of the Minister of Finance, to enter into commercial banking arrangements and to borrow money by any means, including the issuing, reissuing, selling and pledging of bonds, debentures, notes and other evidences of indebtedness of the Board;
	(c.1) subject to the approval of the Minister of Finance, to invest moneys of the Board in bonds, debentures, notes or other evidences of indebtedness of or guaranteed by
	(i) the Government of Canada or of any province of Canada,
	(ii) the government of a foreign country or of any province or state thereof, or
	(iii) a financial institution whether in or outside Canada;
	(3) New.
	Clause 7: Subsection 7(3) reads as follows:
	(3) Losses sustained by the Board
	(a) from its operations under Part III in relation to any pool period fixed thereunder, during that pool period, or
	(b) from its other operations under this Act during any crop year,
	for which no provision is made in any other Part, shall be paid out of mo neys provided by Parliament.
	Clause 8: Subsection 8(1) reads as follows:
	8. (1) The Board shall, at the time of realization, use every profit realized by it on the sale of bonds, debentures, notes or other evidences of indebtedness acquired by it under paragraph 6(c.1) in payment of expenses incurred by the Board in its operations.
	Clause 9: The heading before section 12 and sections 12 to 17 read as follows:
	Advisory Committee
	12. (1) There is hereby established for the purpose of assisting the Board an Advisory Committee consisting of eleven members having the qualifications prescribed by any regulations made pursuant to section 17.
	(2) The members of the Advisory Committee shall be elected, in accordance with section 17 and any regulations made pursuant thereto, by actual producers having the qualifications prescribed by those regulations.
	13. (1) The members of the Advisory Committee hold office for a term of four years commencing on January 1 in the year next following the year in which an election of members of the Advisory Committee is held.
	(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the members of the Advisory Committee hold office until their successors are declared elected pursuant to subsection 17(6).
	(3) When a member of the Advisory Committee ceases to be a member before the end of the term for which he was elected, whether by reason of ceasing to have the qualifications prescribed by any regulations made pursuant to section 17 or otherwise, the Minister may appoint a person to be a member for the remainder of that term.
	14. (1) The members of the Advisory Committee may elect from their number a chairman and vice-chairman.
	(2) A person elected to an office under subsection (1) holds that office for a term of one year and ceases to hold that office if the person ceases to be a member of the Advisory Committee.
	(3) The chairman of the Advisory Committee or, in the event of the absence or incapacity of the chairman or if the office of chairman is vacant, the vice-chairman shall preside at all meetings of the Advisory Committee.
	15. (1) The Board shall pay to each member of the Advisory Committee
	(a) such allowance as the Governor in Council may fix for each day the member attends a meeting of the Committee;
	(b) such allowance as the Governor in Council may fix in respect of the period spent by the member in travelling to and returning from a meeting of the Committee, the allowance not to be paid in respect of more than one day for any one meeting;
	(c) the necessary travel and living expenses incurred by the member while travelling to, attending and returning from a meeting of the Committee; and
	(d) any other expenses, not exceeding such amount as the Governor in Council may fix, incurred by the member in the discharge of the member's duties.
	(2) The Board may pay to each member of the Advisory Committee
	(a) such allowance as the Governor in Council may fix for each day the member attends a meeting of a subcommittee of the Committee; and
	(b) the necessary living expenses incurred by the member while attending a meeting of a subcommittee of the Committee.
	16. (1) The Board shall call at least six meetings of the Advisory Committee each year to be held at such time and place as the Board may determine.
	(2) The Minister may call meetings of the Advisory Committee to be held at such time and place as the Minister may determine.
	(3) The Advisory Committee, as soon as convenient after every meeting, shall report the proceedings of the meeting to the Minister and to the Board.
	17. (1) The Board shall hold an election of members of the Advisory Committee in accordance with this section and any regulations thereunder in the year 1978 and every fourth year thereafter.
	(2) Voting in an election of members of the Advisory Committee shall be by ballot.
	(3) The Governor in Council may make regulations respecting the conduct of an election of members of the Advisory Committee and in particular, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, may make regulations
	(a) prescribing the time, within the year the election is to be held, when the list of actual producers qualified to vote in the election is to be prepared and revised, the nominations are to be made and the poll is to be taken;
	(b) establishing the boundaries and names of eleven electoral districts within the designated area;
	(c) prescribing the qualifications of members of the Advisory Committee and of actual producers for the purposes of section 12;
	(d) providing for the preparation and revision of lists of actual producers qualified to vote in the election;
	(e) governing the making and withdrawing of nominations;
	(f) respecting the amount, filing and forfeiture of deposits;
	(g) respecting acclamations;
	(h) prescribing the form of ballots; and
	(i) respecting the casting, counting, recounting, disqualification and reporting of votes and the making of returns.
	(4) It is the duty of the Board to exercise direction and supervision over the administrative conduct of an election of members of the Advisory Committee and, for the purpose of fulfilling that duty, the Board may
	(a) employ any person in the conduct or management of the election and pay that person such fees, costs, allowances and expenses as the Board may fix by tariff, contract or otherwise;
	(b) pay the costs of the election incurred by or on behalf of the Board, including such costs incurred in the preparation, printing and distribution of material describing individual candidates in the election as the Board may authorize; and
	(c) provide each person who is qualified as a candidate in the election with a list of the names and mailing addresses of the actual producers qualified to vote in the electoral district for which that candidate is nominated.
	(5) Where in accordance with paragraph (4)(c) the Board provides a candidate with a list of actual producers qualified to vote in the election, the candidate shall not use the list for any purpose other than that of conducting the candidate's election campaign and shall, as soon as possible after completion of the campaign, return the list and all copies thereof to the Board.
	(6) On completion of the counting of all votes cast in an election of members of the Advisory Committee, the Board shall declare elected as members of the Advisory Committee the candidate in each of the eleven electoral districts who has obtained the largest number of votes cast in the electoral district for which the candidate was nominated.
	Clause 10: New.
	Clause 11: Section 19 and the heading before it read as follows:
	Loans and Guarantees by Minister of Finance
	19. The Governor in Council may authorize the Minister of Finance, on behalf of Her Majesty,
	(a) to guarantee, on such terms and conditions as the Governor in Council may approve, repayment with interest of loans or advances made to the Board for the purpose of carrying on its operations, on the security of grain held by the Board or otherwise, and payment with interest of amounts owing to the Board in respect of the sale of grain on credit; or
	(b) to make loans or advances to the Board on such terms and conditions as may be agreed on.
	Clause 12: (1) The relevant portion of subsection 24(1) reads as follows:
	24. (1) Notwithstanding anything in the Canada Grain Act, except with the permission of the Board, no person shall deliver grain to an elevator, and no manager or operator thereof shall receive delivery of grain unless
	(2) Subsection 24(2) reads as follows:
	(2) Where grain is delivered by a producer to an elevator, the manager or operator thereof shall, immediately on completion of the delivery of the grain, truly and correctly record and enter the net weight in tonnes, after dockage, of the grain so delivered in the permit book under which delivery is made and shall initial the entry in the permit book.
	(3) New.
	Clause 13: The relevant portion of subsection 25(1) reads as follows:
	25. (1) Notwithstanding anything in the Canada Grain Act, except with the permission of the Board, no person shall deliver to a railway car grain that has not previously been delivered to an elevator under a permit book in accordance with subsection 24(1) unless
	Clause 14: New.
	Clause 15: Subsection 29(1) reads as follows:
	29. (1) The Governor in Council may empower the Board to make inquiries and investigations to ascertain the availability of delivery and transportation facilities, supplies of grain and all matters connected with the interprovincial or export marketing of grain, and for that purpose empower the Board and the members thereof to exercise the powers of commissioners under Part I of the Inquiries Act.
	Clause 16: Section 31 reads as follows:
	31. Subject to section 40, in this Part, ``pool period'' means a crop year.
	Clause 17: (1) and (2) The relevant portion of subsection 32(1) reads as follows:
	32. (1) The Board shall undertake the marketing of wheat produced in the designated area in interprovincial and export trade and for that purpose shall
	(a) buy all wheat produced in the designated area and offered by a producer for sale and delivery to the Board at an elevator or in a railway car in accordance with this Act and the regulations and the orders of the Board;
	(b) pay to producers selling and delivering wheat produced in the designated area to the Board, at the time of delivery or at any time thereafter as may be agreed on, a sum certain per tonne basis in storage at a pooling point to be fixed from time to time
	(i) by regulation of the Governor in Council in respect of wheat of a base grade to be prescribed in those regulations, and
	(ii) by the Board, with the approval of the Governor in Council, in respect of each other grade of wheat;
	...
	(d) issue to a producer, who sells and delivers wheat produced in the designated area to the Board, a certificate indicating the number of tonnes purchased and delivered and the grade thereof, which certificate entitles the producer named therein to share in the equitable distribution of the surplus, if any, arising from the operations of the Board with regard to the wheat produced in the designated area sold and delivered to the Board during the same pool period.
	(3) Subsection 32(3) reads as follows:
	(3) The Board shall, if directed by regulation, pay to each producer at the time of delivery of wheat to the Board, in addition to any other payment authorized by this section, a sum per tonne on account of storage of that wheat on the producer's farm, for such period of storage as the Board in its sole discretion shall fix for the purposes of the storage payment, which sum, however, shall equal the amount payable for storage in a country elevator for the same period according to the country elevator tariff rate filed with the Canadian Grain Commission.
	Clause 18: (1) to (3) The relevant portion of subsection 33(1) reads as follows:
	33. (1) As soon as the Board receives payment in full for all wheat produced in the designated area sold and delivered to it by producers during any pool period and all credit sales have been concluded of such wheat in respect of which payment is guaranteed pursuant to section 19, there shall be deducted, from the aggregate of the total amount so received, the principal so guaranteed and any interest that accrues during that pool period in respect of sales of wheat on credit concluded during any pool period, all moneys disbursed by or on behalf of the Board
	(a) by way of payment in respect of that wheat and by way of expenses incurred in connection with the operations of the Board attributable to that wheat, including
	(i) the remuneration and allowances of the Commissioners, members of the Advisory Committee and officers, clerks and employees of the Board,
	...
	(iii) the costs of an election of members of the Advisory Committee incurred by or on behalf of the Board, and
	(4) Subsections 33(1.1) to (5) read as follows:
	(1.1) With the approval of the Governor in Council and subject to such terms and conditions as the Governor in Council may prescribe, in addition to any payment authorized by section 32, the Board may fix and pay in respect of any pool period a sum per tonne to each producer who has sold and delivered wheat to the Board in a railway car during the pool period.
	(2) Subject to sections 33.1 to 33.5, the Board shall, on or after January 1 of the year commencing after the end of any pool period, distribute the balance remaining in its account in respect of wheat produced in the designated area purchased by it from producers during the pool period, after making the deductions therefrom provided for in subsection (1) and the payments provided for in subsection (1.1), among holders of certificates issued by the Board pursuant to this Part during the pool period, by paying on surrender to it of each certificate, unless the Board, by order, waives the surrender, to the person named therein, the appropriate sum determined by the Board as provided in this Act for each tonne of wheat referred to therein according to grade.
	(3) Notwithstanding subsection (1), if the Governor in Council, having regard to a report by the Board of the effect on its financial position of an interim payment on account of the distribution of the balance referred to in subsection (2), is of the opinion that an interim payment can be made without loss, the Governor in Council may authorize and direct that payment to be made.
	(4) Expenses incurred by the Board with respect to any international organization for the purposes of marketing wheat and the expenses of any commissioner or officer of the Board of and incidental to attendance at meetings of that international organization or any committee thereof shall be deemed to be expenses incurred in connection with the operations of the Board within the meaning of this section, but nothing in this subsection shall be construed as authorizing the payment by the Board of any contributions required to be paid by Canada to or in support of that international organization or any committee thereof.
	(5) The Board shall, with the approval of the Governor in Council, determine and fix the amounts to which producers are entitled per tonne according to grade under certificates issued pursuant to this Part so that each producer receives, in respect of wheat sold and delivered to the Board during each crop year for the same grade of wheat, the same price basis at a pooling point and that each price bears a proper price relationship to the price for each other grade.
	Clause 19: (1) The relevant portion of subsection 37(1) reads as follows:
	37. (1) The Governor in Council may, by regulation,
	...
	(c) prescribe the conditions under which the right to payment under a certificate issued pursuant to this Part may be transferred.
	(2) Subsection 37(2) reads as follows:
	(2) Except as provided by regulation, no certificate issued pursuant to this Part or the right to payment thereunder shall be transferred or assigned and no person other than the person therein named is entitled to payment thereunder, and a statement to that effect shall be printed on each certificate.
	Clause 20: Section 39.1 is new. Sections 38 and 39 read as follows:
	38. The Governor in Council may authorize the Board to adjust its accounts at any time by transferring to the then current pool period all wheat delivered during a preceding pool period and then remaining unsold, and the Board shall credit to the accounts for that preceding pool period, and charge against the accounts for the current pool period, such amount as the Governor in Council deems to be a reasonable price for the wheat so transferred, and all wheat so transferred shall,
	(a) for the purposes of the accounts relating to that preceding pool period, be deemed to have been sold and paid for in full for that amount; and
	(b) in the accounts relating to the current pool period, be dealt with as though it had been sold and delivered to the Board by producers in the current pool period and purchased by the Board for that amount, but no further certificates in respect thereof shall be issued under paragraph 32(1)(d).
	39. (1) Where producers of any grain sold and delivered during a pool period have been for six years or more entitled to receive from the Board payments in respect thereof under certificates issued pursuant to this Act or out of an equalization fund, or otherwise, and there is an undistributed balance remaining in the accounts of the Board in respect of that grain, the Governor in Council may authorize the Board
	(a) to adjust its accounts
	(i) by applying the undistributed balance in payment of the expenses of distribution of the balance mentioned in subsection 33(2) with respect to the same kind of grain in any earlier pool period, and
	(ii) by transferring the remainder of the undistributed balance to a separate account; and
	(b) to pay to the persons who are entitled to receive payments in respect of that grain the amount to which they are entitled out of the separate account.
	(2) Any balance transferred to the separate account pursuant to subparagraph (1)(a)(ii), other than such part thereof as is required for the payments referred to in paragraph (1)(b), shall be used for such purposes as the Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Board, may deem to be for the benefit of producers.
	Clause 21: The heading of Part IV reads as follows:
	REGULATION OF INTERPROVINCIAL AND EXPORT TRADE IN WHEAT
	Clause 22: Subsections 45(2) to (4) are new. Section 45 reads as follows:
	45. Except as permitted under the regulations, no person other than the Board shall
	(a) export from Canada wheat or wheat products owned by a person other than the Board;
	(b) transport or cause to be transported from one province to another province, wheat or wheat products owned by a person other than the Board;
	(c) sell or agree to sell wheat or wheat products situated in one province for delivery in another province or outside Canada; or
	(d) buy or agree to buy wheat or wheat products situated in one province for delivery in another province or outside Canada.
	Clause 23: The relevant portion of section 46 reads as follows:
	46. The Governor in Council may make regulations
	. . .
	(b) to exclude any kind of wheat, or any grade thereof, or wheat produced in any area in Canada, from the provisions of this Part either in whole or in part, or generally, or for any period;
	Clause 24: New.
	Financial Administration Act
	Clause 28: Subsection 85(1) reads as follows:
	85. (1) Divisions I to IV do not apply to the Bank of Canada, the Canada Council, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Film Development Corporation, the Canadian Wheat Board, the International Development Research Centre or the National Arts Centre Corporation.
	Canada Grain Act
	Clause 29: Paragraph 118(g.1) is new. The relevant portion of section 118 reads as follows:
	118. The Commission may make orders
	...
	(g) subject to any order made under the Canadian Wheat Board Act, providing for the acceptance of deliveries of grain in the interests of producers; and