The current system of appointing Canadian Grain Commission assistant commissioners is “ineffective and improper,” a consultant told a parliamentary committee last week.
In his report to the government, Compas Research president Conrad Winn suggested the assistant commissioner position be abolished in favour of an experiment with a Grain Farmer Advocacy office that would be independent of the commission.
“We have good reason to believe that the assistant commissioner role is ineffective and improper,” Winn told the House of Commons agriculture committee Sept. 28.
He said they are patronage appointees responsible to the government and not the chief commissioner.
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They sometimes do good work advocating for farmers and sometimes are just citizens of “patronage heaven.”
However, there are no job description guidelines to allow judgment of their performance and that does not meet the requirements of a modern corporate structure, the consultant told the committee.
“If you just look at two principles that we can all accept, accountability and transparency, the assistant commissioner role does not meet either of those criteria,” said Winn.
The status of assistant commissioner divided witnesses appearing before the Commons committee last week as it opened hearings on grain commission reform.
Terry Boehm, vice-president of the National Farmers Union, told MPs Sept. 28 that assistant commissioners independent of the chief commissioner sometimes have worked to protect producers from bad policies being promoted by the government-appointed chief commissioner. He urged the position be retained.
The Western Grain Elevator Association said abolishing the job was a good proposal aimed at getting politics out of the commission’s operations.
“The removal of the assistant commissioner position is a good change,” WGEA executive director Wade Sobkowich told MPs.
Winn had argued that the patronage appointments lacked credibility.
Grain commission leaders were noncommittal on the proposed change but noted that the existing system of assistant commissioners has its strengths.
“I don’t think anyone questions the role they play in communicating some of the grain commission issues,” chief commissioner Chris Hamblin told New Democrat Alex Atamanenko.
“Certainly they provide an increased awareness in their respective regions for some of the work the CGC is doing and they do provide a mechanism for complaint resolution.”
Hamblin said the government must be careful if it is considering changing the structure of the commission to get rid of the assistant commissioners.
“If we are making a change to structure, we want to make sure that we are not in any way putting producers at a disadvantage by putting forward a new structure.”
