CAMROSE, Alta. – Some producers charge that Alberta’s grain marketing plebiscite question was worded to elicit an anti-wheat board response.
“I’m quite concerned about the manipulation that has gone on in the developing of this plebiscite,” Camrose farmer Alan Hoult told a plebiscite information meeting.
The producers on the committee that developed the question were all “hand-picked supporters of dual marketing,” said Hoult.
Robert Filkohazy, one of 10 people who sat on the committee, agrees.
“This thing is so far from democratic it’s pathetic,” said Filkohazy, a member of the Unifarm farm lobby board of directors who lives in Hussar. Filkohazy said a consultant hired to help with the question “more or less told us what answer do you want.
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“It’s a well known fact that the wording of a plebiscite has a lot to do with the outcome.”
But Wayne Kriz, chair of the committee that developed the wording, said the group never tried to slant the question.
“It’s kind of disturbing to suggest the committee designed the question with the help of a consultant to get a yes vote. This was done on consensus. We wanted to come up with something we all agreed upon,” said Kriz, who is president of the Western Barley Growers Association.
“I find it bizarre and somewhat conspiratorial to suggest we tested it to get what we wanted.”
The Alberta plebiscite set for Nov. 14-24 asks two questions, one for wheat and one for barley. It asks: “Are you in favor of having the freedom to sell your barley/wheat to any buyer, including the Canadian Wheat Board, into domestic and export markets?”
Ken Motiuk of Mundare, a member of United Grain Growers, also sat on the committee. He said the consultant was only used to test four guidelines the committee had laid out.
“No, it was not designed to solicit a yes vote,” he said.
Must be neutral
David Walker, executive secretary of the Alberta Grain Commission, said the four guidelines used in designing the question stated that the question must be understood, perceived to be neutral, the results must be attainable and must be answered either yes or no.
On the committee in addition to Filkohazy, Kriz and Motiuk were: Pat Durnin of Kathyrn and Jack Gorr of Three Hills, vice-president and chair, respectively, of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, Brian Otto of Warner, a member of the Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission; Tim Harvie of Cochrane, chair of the Alberta Barley Commission; Dan Cutforth of Barons, a member of the Canadian Wheat Board Advisory Committee; Ken Moholitny of Edmonton, chair of the Alberta Grain Commission; and Eugene Dextrose of High Level, a member of the Alberta Canola Commission and the Alberta Food Council.
