Wells to step down as president of NFU at annual convention

Wells has decided not to let his name stand for president during the NFU's national convention in Ottawa on Nov. 26-28. He is stepping down even though the NFU constitution states an individual can serve 10 years in the same position."I'm inching towards that limit anyway. But I think that it's time to move over and make some room for some new faces. We have a strong team, really right from coast to coast. It'll be good to give those other people some added responsibility and it'll be good for me to step back for a little bit," Wells said during a recent phone interview.Wells, who was chosen NFU president by delegates at the 2001 convention in Regina, highlighted a series of impacting efforts over the past years."If it wasn't for the NFU working here since 2000, we would have Genetically Modified Wheat out in the countryside, and there's almost a 100 per cent chance that we'd be in the same situation as the flax growers are now, where our wheat supply would have been contaminated with genetically modified wheat and our markets, domestically and internationally, would be closed. That would have been a horrible circumstance for Canadian farmers, and the NFU led the way in stopping that from happening seven years ago."With the latest round of World Trade Organization talks currently underway, he points out that Canadian farmers have a lot to lose in these trade talks."It's astonishing to me that any farmers or so called farm organizations in this country would be advocating lowering of domestic support for Canadian farmers, and that's on the table right now. Any farmers or farm organizations in Canada that are supporting that deal are supporting a 55 per cent cut in domestic programming. And for that cut there's nothing on the table, advantages and market access or any of those things."And the other thing that's on the table right now is the killing of the advantages of the single desk selling of the Canadian Wheat Board. The Wheat Board has been singled out, absolutely unfairly in these talks, and made a direct target by other interests that are just trying to figure out ways to get advantages for their own countries. And they see that they can get an advantage for their own countries if they're able to kill the advantages that Canadian farmers have."Wells notes that the NFU has had to fight for farmers, even against the federal government. The NFU has been the most vocal farm organization that has been fighting to maintain and preserve the Canadian Wheat Board."It was the NFU that stood up to the Prime Minister's threats there a couple of years ago that he was going to 'walk over' any opposition to his plans to do away with the Board. And it was the NFU that stood up and said, well, no you're not, you're going to have to go through us first."The NFU also spearheaded the move to take the federal government to court after making illegal changes to the way the Canadian Wheat Board operates. Wells said if they did not fight that battle, those changes wouldn't have been challenged and the board would be severely weakened.On the Grain Commission file, he said the NFU is again taking the lead to preserve this commission, with the federal government having introduced legislation more than once in an attempt to remove the protections and advantages it provides."It's been a very busy 12 years, and very successful if you look at it from the point of view of trying to put more money in the pockets of Canadian farmers.""In the last 12 years I've been really astonished at how soft and scared the other organizations are. Scared to take on the hard issues. Scared and reluctant to go up against the federal government or provincial government. In my mind farmers aren't being well served by organizations that are just being way too soft and too scared of government policy."Wells' final national convention as president also coincides with the 40th anniversary of the National Farmers Union. The various provincial farmers unions joined forces 40 years ago through a special act of Parliament which spells out that the NFU's aim is to work towards the social and economic betterment of Canadian farmers.To highlight this message in Ottawa, NFU members will be meeting one-on-one with a number of MPs to highlight the plight of farmers."As a business, it's absolutely insolvent, because the net income from the markets, for Canadian farmers for this past 25 years, on the average, has only been $125 million per year. It's net income from the markets, no government programs, no transfers from taxpayers, no off-farm income in there - just from the markets as you would look at it as if you were looking at it as a business. But Canadian farmers are holding $60 billion worth of debt. Canadian farmers are holding the same amount of debt that the federal government's in right now on a yearly deficit. As a business, farmers can not pay the principal on that debt. That's a huge issue for farmers and it's something the Farmers Union has been flagging, saying this is not sustainable."Wells feels that a stronger NFU voice would carry an even more impacting message to Ottawa."I'm just hopeful that one of these days, farmers, before it's too late, farmers will understand that it's the NFU that's working on behalf of their interests and working for their interests. And I'm hoping that when the farmers make that realization they will turn around and buy NFU memberships."