Agricore United has filled the gaping hole in its centre.
The farmer-controlled company now has three Saskatchewan farmers on its board of directors. Last year it had only one Saskatchewan member among 12 farmer directors and three appointed directors.
“I think it’ll bring a better balance at the board of directors,” said newly elected Regina area farmer Alanna Koch.
Nokomis, Sask., farmer Brett Halstead, who was also elected to the board, said he thinks fellow Saskatchewan farmers will like seeing a bigger Saskatchewan presence on the board.
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“I think it will reach out to more of our members,” said Halstead.
“Some were feeling alienated by the fact that there was only one.”
AU’s Alberta-Manitoba director bias was a result of the merger that created the company.
Both Agricore and United Grain Growers were given six director seats on the new board of directors. Agricore, formed from the Alberta and Manitoba pool co-operatives, put forward only Manitoba and Alberta directors and UGG put forward only one Saskatchewan farmer as part of its six-director contingent.
To try to obtain more equal provincial representation, AU’s farmer directors are elected by a hybrid affirmative action-majority vote system. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are each allotted two spots on the board of directors.
The other six are elected as “at-large” directors and may come from any province.
At this year’s AU annual meeting there was hot competition for the Saskatchewan spots, including prominent entrants such as Koch, who had led the lobby group CARE, which campaigned against the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, and was executive director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
Bill Boyd, a former leader of the Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative party, and sitting AU board member Terry Youzwa also ran.
Youzwa was re-elected and Koch was elected as Saskatchewan’s designated directors. In the at-large category, Halstead was elected and sitting board member and Manitoba farmer Hugh Drake was re-elected.
