CAMROSE, Alta. – A coalition of Alberta commodity groups wanting wide-open grain marketing is staying tight-lipped about plans in the upcoming Canadian Wheat Board plebiscite.
“We’re not sure what we want to talk about regarding strategy,” said Alanna Koch, executive director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers.
“We wouldn’t want to blow our impact,” she said from the association’s head office in Regina.
Koch said a coalition of farm groups including the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and the Western Canadian Barley Growers will be organizing and sponsoring farm meetings this fall.
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Last month, Alberta agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski announced Alberta wheat and barley producers would vote in a pleb-iscite to decide if they wanted the Canadian Wheat Board to maintain its monopoly on selling wheat and barley out of the country.
Kathy Cooper of the barley growers said her group has some fall meetings scheduled where it will likely deal with the issue, but nothing has been finalized.
“I have found there has been a lack of information that there’s even going to be a plebiscite,” said Cooper.
Meetings wanted
She hopes the chief returning officer, Harold Hannah, will organize information meetings and advertising for the plebiscite.
Neither Koch nor Cooper were willing to disclose names of other farm organizations involved in the coalition opposed to single agency selling.
Brian Otto, president of the Alberta Winter Wheat Growers Association, was unabashed in his group’s show of support for the coalition.
“We support the dual marketing proposal,” said Otto.
The winter wheat growers’ involvement will be limited by the late harvest in southern Alberta and the shortage of money in their organization, he said.
It expects to finalize plans during a board meeting sometime this week.
“We will form a game plan of how we plan to get information out to producers so they can make an informed decision,” said Otto.
The Canadian Barley Commission is also involved in the coalition. The barley commission’s original mandate was to carry out barley research and promotional work with a 40 cents a tonne deduction from barley sales. It has since expanded its mandate to include lobbying.
John Nikkel, past president of the Alberta Soft Wheat Producers Commission, said his organization is planning to stay out of the debate.
Unlike some farm groups, that organization isn’t backing one side or the other.
“We can’t afford to lose producer support over this issue,” said Nikkel.
He said the commission will likely have a meeting sometime in November to take an official position.
