The House of Commons voted on Bill C-18, which will end the Canadian Wheat Board's Single Desk Monopoly on Prairie wheat and barley.
Conservative MPs easily outvoted their NDP and Liberal rivals to pass the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act in the Commons, 153 - 120.
As of August 1, 2012, western Canadian farmers will no longer be forced to sell their wheat and barley through the board.
Instead, for the first time in nearly seven decades, they will be able to negotiate their own deals.
“This is a tremendous day, this is a movement forward, this is what we have been waiting for decades,” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Monday in the hours before the vote.
Farmers in western Canada are divided on the subject and supporters of marketing freedom expressed their pleasure on agriville.com Click this link to follow the discussions.
http://www.agriville.com/cgi-bin/forums/viewThread.cgi?1322524721