“I DIDN’T leave the Pool. The Pool left me.” That expression of lost loyalty has been heard at meetings, discussed in coffee shops and written in letters to the editor.
On Jan. 31, those feelings and many others concerning Saskatchewan Wheat Pool will find their voice in votes cast for or against the grain company’s financial restructuring plan – a plan that is pivotal in the life of a corporate prairie giant.
That 79 years of history should boil down to one seminal moment is not surprising, considering the Pool’s past is riddled with tumultuous battles.
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Its creation in 1924 was the culmination of two decades of struggle as prairie farmers fought for fair grain pricing. That was followed by near collapse and major debt after the crash of 1929, and the challenges of the Dirty Thirties.
More recently, the 1996 move to being a publicly traded company is seen as a major and divisive landmark. That was followed by aggressive expansion into processing, livestock and high-capacity grain terminals.
This week’s vote could have several outcomes. The Pool’s new financial proposal could be accepted by noteholders and the company would proceed with plans to return itself to profitability. If the proposal is rejected, alternatives include provincial government investment, partial or complete purchase by some other investor, likely a rival grain company, or bankruptcy followed by selloff of assets.
If the latter option evolves, prairie grain producers will have lost an element of competition that the majority consider important to fair pricing.
Government involvement could have numerous outcomes. Suffice to say the recent record of Saskatchewan crown investments is less than stellar.
If Pool survives and continues on its current path, it will still be years before members and customers recover confidence in the once mighty grain giant.
Whatever happens, there will be no shortage of opinions about the roots of Pool’s situation: the distance from farmers resulting from going public; the hubris of past management; two years of drought; a combination of all those things, and more.
Author and former Western Producer editor Garry Fairbairn, in his book From Prairie Roots: The Remarkable Story of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, may have been prescient in his epilogue: ”Successful solutions – ones that are economically, socially and politically acceptable – can only emerge from a continuing policy process based on genuine grassroots participation and realistic negotiation with interests outside the Pool. … the new generations should keep their minds open to suggestions for fundamental change as their predecessors did.”
The book concludes with eight words spoken by a Pool official who faced one of many challenges that would define the company – words that those who today feel abandoned by the Pool may want to consider: If not us, who? If not now, when?
