The Canola Council of Canada will be operating in 2018 with a budget that has been reduced by nearly one-third.
In addition to losing about $1 million in annual funding from Richardson International, the council will have less money coming in from grower groups, crushers and other exporters.
That is because the council’s board of directors decided to adjust the funding formula in the wake of Richardson’s exit from the organization.
“The board wanted to keep the relative balance between the sectors of the value chain,” said council president Jim Everson.
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Provincial grower groups will pay a levy of 15 cents per tonne in 2018, down from 23 cents per tonne in previous years.
Crushers and the remaining exporters will pay 19 cents per tonne, down from 23 cents per tonne.
Life science companies contribute a fixed amount every year, and that is not changing.
All together it amounts to a 32 percent reduction in core funding for the industry organization.
“We’ve made adjustments. We’ve reduced some of our market development programming,” said Everson.
However, he stressed that the budget reduction is a one-year thing. The council is conducting a strategic review in 2018 in order to develop a strong industry consensus on what its role should be.
“It’s our hope that those companies and organizations that may be questioning our programming now will see value at the end of that process,” he said.
The review will reassess what the council’s role will be in activities such as agronomy and market development.
Everson hopes Richardson will be happy with the end result and come back into the fold. The grain company has stated that it is willing to resume funding if it sees the desired changes at the council.
Growers traditionally provide about half of the council’s funding, and that will be the case again in 2018. The amount they contributed in 2016, the last audited financial information available, was $3.5 million.
The Alberta Canola Producers Commission is budgeting slightly less than $900,000 for its 2017-18 contribution to the council, down from $1.3 million the previous year.
“I cannot stress this enough, the grower organizations did not just pull their money out,” said Kevin Serfas, Alberta’s representative on the council’s board of directors.
“The canola council’s board decided that when Richardson pulled their money we were dealing with less money period, so we came up with a formula to make this work for the next year.”
Brian Chorney, the Manitoba Canola Growers Association’s representative on the council’s board, said the 2018 budget is an anomaly and that the strategic review will result in a revamped funding formula.
“We’re going over everything with a fine-toothed comb,” said Chorney.
“Whatever is going to happen this year is just kind of an interim thing.”
Janice Tranberg, executive director of the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, said the council remains an integral part of the canola industry.
“We really do think that the whole value chain representation is important and that’s what the canola council provides for us,” she said.
“They’ve shown in the past that they’ve certainly brought value to us.”
