EDMONTON – Members of Wild Rose Agricultural Producers say they know the way out of their financial crisis, but fear the Alberta Cattle Commission will stymie their efforts.
“If we don’t get it, it’s going to be very difficult,” said Taber farmer Paul Thibodeau about the organization’s call for a refundable checkoff. “Our finances are down and we have some commitments that are tough to meet.”
The organization carries a debt of $121,262, even after a massive spending cut. During the Wild Rose annual meeting, delegates and members repeatedly stated the need for a checkoff.
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Thibodeau said the present structure, in which producers voluntarily provide membership fees, makes it too easy for freeloaders.
“Some growers say, ‘Why should I join? I get the same benefits if I don’t belong, anyway,” said Thibodeau.
A refundable fee charged to all producers would hand the organization some much-needed cash, and producers that didn’t support Wild Rose could ask for a refund, as with several commodity commissions.
“The cattle people are against the organization, we know that,” Thibodeau said.
Officials at the Alberta Cattle Commission could not be reached for comment.
A number of members said the provincial government has told Wild Rose it will only get a checkoff if it can bring all the commodity organizations on-side.
Unifarm, the precursor to Wild Rose, fell out of favor with the cattle commission over the Crow Benefit subsidy in the 1980s, said a number of Wild Rose members. Unifarm supported paying the benefit to the railways, the cattle commission wanted it paid to producers.
Since then, co-operation between the two groups has been poor, they said.
Some won’t agree
Elnora producer Neil Wagstaff said he didn’t think it was fair to expect Wild Rose to have every commodity organization behind it to get a checkoff.
“I feel really slighted as an agricultural producer that the province sees fit to have compulsory checkoffs on other commodities and doesn’t see fit to somehow accommodate some kind of checkoff system for a general farm organization,” said Wagstaff.
Alberta agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski could not be reached for comment, but government sources said the main block to a Wild Rose checkoff may be general checkoff weariness among producers. The government would be leery of forcing producers to pay another one.
Some people believe Wild Rose should be asking some of the commodity groups that already receive checkoffs to make contributions to the general farm organization.
Some in government also think it is hard to build a general farm organization when producers have so many differing views, the sources said. A general farm organization that takes a stand on some issues could alienate some of its members.
