Jim Wood wants to know how a proposed new producer-funded protection program will prevent him from losing $54,000 again.
“I’ll be up there (in Saskatoon) and it will be really interesting to see what the gory details are on that program because I don’t consider myself protected at all by the (Canadian) Grain Commission,” said the Pense, Sask., farmer.
“If this looks like it will work I’ll jump on that bandwagon real quick.”
Growers are expected to hear details of a consultant’s report at a Jan. 13 Pulse Days presentation, which is to be held as part of Crop Production Week in Saskatoon. Many farmers are seeking better coverage for money owed them following bankruptcies in the grain industry.
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Wood and 111 other eligible farmers received 51 percent of the money they were owed when processor Naber Seed and Grain Co. Ltd. went into receivership in the summer of 2002. Naber was licensed by the grain commission but many farmers were unhappy that they were unable to recover more of the money owed them.
The case prompted a review of the commission’s licence and bonding system by the three prairie pulse grower associations.
The consultant they hired has recommended a gradual transition to the Ontario model of a farmer funded and controlled system.
Wood likes the preliminary findings of the Kelly Associates report.
“The general idea sounds good to me. You’ve got to get it out of the hands of the grain commission,” he said.
Farmer acceptance of the idea will likely depend on how much it will cost them to build up a fund through a check-off fee, but Wood doesn’t anticipate many will object to the concept.
“I think in this go-forward world we’ve got going here, we better just start taking care of ourselves.”
The Winnipeg consulting firm explored several options, including a fund administered by provincial crop insurance programs and a western Canadian special crops clearinghouse.
In the end it recommended a system similar to that used by Ontario’s corn, soybean and canola growers.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers executive director Garth Patterson said his board of directors approves of the Ontario model, which was also recently endorsed by the Western Canadian Marketers and Processors Association.
“The reason it interested us is that it has a proven track record in Ontario and it seems to have significant flexibility,” he said.
He would like to see the program “backstopped” with federal government money until the program is running. That would address one of the main concerns with the Ontario model, which is that it would take too long to establish an adequate fund.
Patterson said phase 2 of the study involves consultation with producers to work out details of the proposed new system, beginning with a feedback session at Pulse Days.
It is not yet known what role if any the grain commission will have under the new plan, but proponents of the new producer security proposal say the agency’s co-operation is critical.
