In 1993, Gerry Ritz managed the successful election campaign for Saskatchewan Reform party candidate Elwin Hermanson.
During the following years, he worked in the rookie MP’s constituency office while Hermanson went on to become his party’s agriculture critic in the House of Commons.
In 1997, Ritz succeeded Hermanson as MP.
In late December, agriculture minister Ritz returned the favour to his old political boss by appointing Hermanson to a five-year term as chief commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission, beginning Jan. 21.
“Mr. Hermanson’s strong practical experience built up over 32 years in farming, his profound knowledge of public policy and proven leadership abilities will hold him in good stead as he takes the helm of the CGC,” Ritz said in a statement announcing the appointment.
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Hermanson’s appointment completes a total overhaul of the CGC leadership team since the Conservatives were elected to government almost two years ago. All new commissioners have conservative credentials.
Cam Dahl, a former Parliament Hill aide to Manitoba Reform MP Howard Hilstrom, is a commissioner.
Jim Smolik, a farmer from Dawson Creek, B.C., and former president of Grain Growers of Canada, is the assistant chief commissioner.
The new commissioners have been put in place as the commission faces the prospect of dramatic change.
Ritz has proposed amendments to the Canada Grain Act that would end the need for mandatory inward weighing and grading of grain moving from inland elevators to terminals, change the mandate of the commission to ensure it acts in the interests of the entire industry and not just primary producers, and end the requirement that grain elevators and dealers post a security bond before they can be licensed.
The legislation has not yet been debated in Parliament and is unlikely to be approved before the next election.
The changes would eliminate as many as 200 jobs at the commission, or 30 percent of the workforce.
Ritz said he will act on proposed changes to the governance structure of the commission in later legislation.
Critics denounced the appointment of a former Reform MP as patronage. Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter, who worked with Hermanson after 1993 on the Commons agriculture committee, said Hermanson carries with him an ideological agenda.
“I worked with Elwin and get along with him but I’ve never thought him someone who supports or understands the need for institutions like the Canadian Wheat Board or the important role that the grain commission plays through inspection and regulation,” he said.
“With this government, what public agencies they can’t dismantle from the outside, they will tear down from the inside.”
Yves Ducharme, president of the agriculture union of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the appointment of a former Reform MP with a political agenda is not good news.
Hermanson operates a mixed farm at Beechy, Sask.
He was an MP for four years until 1997 and then a Saskatchewan Party MLA from 1999 to 2007. He was Saskatchewan Party leader for six years.
