1941: Manitoba

Spurred by a wheat crop that was much lower than the good crops of the two previous years, Manitoba farmers joined with those of the neighboring agricultural provinces in seeking special assistance from the Dominion Government. Early in August, a delegation representing the wheat pools of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta visited Ottawa to press for a change in the Government's wheat policy. The delegation urged that the Government pay a flat $1 a bushel for wheat delivered at Fort William, Ontario, and that the record 480,000,000 bushel carry-over be withheld from the market and kept as a war emergency reserve. When these demands were turned down by James S. Gardiner, Federal Minister of Agriculture, and the 70-cent level of the previous year maintained, the wheat pools redoubled their activities. Meetings were held throughout the province urging that steps be taken to give relief to the farmer. The North West Line Elevators Association, the trade organization of the non-pool elevators, urged either a grant to each family or a cost-of-living bonus based on the wheat acreage sown in 1941. The Seare Grain Company of Winnipeg, a private concern, advocated a bonus of 10 cents a bushel on wheat. In November, as a result of the pressure from the western provinces, the Dominion Government announced a plan for supplementing agricultural income by payment of new acreage bonuses to grain growers.

Manitoba joined with the other provinces in working out an arrangement with the Dominion Government whereby the provinces will withdraw from income and certain other types of taxation during the war so as to leave the field to the Dominion Government. Permanent arrangements as proposed by the Sirois report are to be left until the conclusion of the conflict.