SASKATOON (Staff) – The people who regulate Canada’s grain industry will soon have a new standard to live up to.
A code of ethics for members of the Canadian Grain Commission will be published in the Canada Gazette in October and should be in force later this year, says chief commissioner Milt Wakefield.
He declined to say exactly what the code will include, other than that it will contain no major surprises.
“It will set strict standards in terms of doing what is right and what is perceived to be right,” he said.
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The decision to write a code of ethics was taken last spring after it became known that assistant commissioner Lynn Flewitt of Manitoba had grown the unregistered wheat variety Grandin in 1992 and sold it as seed during its one-year interim registration.
While that didn’t violate the Canada Grain Act, it drew criticism from some in the grain industry, who said it undermined the commission’s public stance of discouraging farmers from growing unregistered varieties.
Grain commission employees have always been covered by a federal civil service code of ethics, but Wakefield said the new code will be specifically tailored to the duties of grain commission members.
