SASKATOON – In the end, it wasn’t even close.
After months of discussion at public meetings and hours of debate behind closed doors, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool delegates last week started writing a new chapter in the history of the 70-year-old organization.
By a vote of 110 to 27, the delegates left no doubt they were solidly behind a plan to convert members’ equity to share capital and allow non-farmers to take an ownership stake in the pool.
“I see this as a great day for the organization,” said pool president Leroy Larsen.
Read Also
StatCan stands by its model-based crop forecast
Statistics Canada’s model-based production estimates are under scrutiny, but agency says it is confident in the results.
On the meeting’s first day, the delegates easily defeated separate resolutions to hold a plebiscite of the membership and to a delay a decision until the annual meeting in November. Shortly after noon on July 14, they voted 80 percent in favor of the equity conversion proposal. A two-thirds majority was required.
Larsen said the financial restructuring is something that has to be done. It will provide a permanent equity base and access to new sources of capital, and will put the company in a better position to deal with rapid change in the grain industry.
“We are operating in difficult times,” he said. “This is our response in how we adapt and adjust to the financial environment we are going to have to move forward in.”
In the coming months a professional financial consultant will place a value on the pool’s assets, the first step in determining share prices. Also, a detailed financial prospectus must be prepared; approval must be gained from various regulatory agencies; an in-house trading period will be designed; the provincial government must amend the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Act.
When all is said and done, it will be well into 1995 before pool shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Some pool members fought against the plan and there will be wounds to heal. Larsen said the best way to do that is to make sure members fully understand the proposal. If they understand it, he said, they’ll support it.
Delegate Norman Hall agrees. The 33-year-old farmer from Wynyard, who voted for the resolution, said he didn’t like the idea when he first heard it, mainly because he didn’t really understand it.
“Now that I understand the operation of it and the reasons we have to through with it, I’ve accepted it and embraced it,” he said.
Delegates who voted against the proposal did say it was time to put the fight behind them.
“There is business to be done here,” said Doug Faller of Southey. “My members need to know what has happened and what it all means to them. It’s critically important that they be represented knowledgeably now in the upcoming transition period.”
John Clair of Radisson, who also voted no, said there are lots of things he doesn’t like about the share proposal, particularly the potential for non-farmer investors to influence company policies. But it’s not the end of the world.
“The sun will still come up tomorrow,” he said. “The pool will still be a better place to deliver grain than any other company.”
