The levy paid by wheat and barley growers could be continued, terminated or combined with other research programs
Beginning next year, Western Canadian wheat and barley growers will see another change to the way producer levies are deducted from their grain cheques.
The Western Canadian Deduction (WCD) is due to expire on July 31, 2017.
Prairie grain farmers have been paying WCD levies for nearly four years. The deduction was implemented by Ottawa on Aug. 1, 2012, as an interim measure to provide uninterrupted funding for the Western Grains Research Foundation, the Canadian International Grains Institute and the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre.
Before 2012, those three organizations had been receiving core funding via the Canadian Wheat Board, which deducted levies from producers’ grain cheques.
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But when the federal government ended the CWB’s single desk marketing powers in 2012, a new funding arrangement was needed.
The WCD filled the funding void, but only temporarily.
The interim deduction is due to expire at the beginning of the 2016-17 crop year, meaning producers and producer groups must now decide whether the levies will be continued, terminated or combined with other producer levies that are collected through provincial cereal grain commissions.
The WCD checkoff is set at 48 cents on every tonne of wheat sold in Western Canada and 56 cents per tonne on barley, except for barley that’s grown in Alberta.
Alberta’s barley rate is lower because that province’s barley growers were already making contributions outside the WCD.
Bill Gehl, chair of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, said informal discussions that have taken place so far seem to indicate that the WCD deduction will be combined with grower levies that are already being collected by provincial commissions.
Although no formal decisions have been made in Saskatchewan, there seems to be consensus that rolling the SaskWheat levy and the WCD into one checkoff is a reasonable way to ensure stable funding for the WGRF, CIGI and the CMBTC. There is widespread agreement among SaskWheat directors that funding support for the WGRF and the other groups should be continued, he added.
Regardless of what happens, it will be imperative that farmers are consulted, he said.
“What will be very important in any process going forward is that we make sure that growers know what’s being discussed … and that we have the go-ahead from farmers, because in the end … it’s their money.”
Brent VanKoughnet, executive director of the Manitoba Wheat & Barley Growers Association, offered a similar assessment.
He said Manitoba cereal growers who attend the MWGBA’s annual general meeting at the Crop-Connect Conference in Winnipeg Feb. 11 will be asked to support a resolution that calls for the WCD and the provincial wheat and barley levies to be combined and collected as a single MWGBA checkoff.
