APAS continues to abuse the trust and hard-earned money that some of the producers of this province are putting into this organization.

As well as a continued complete lack of good policy for agriculture, and non-existent public presence, now they are wasting your money by paying a high-priced lawyer to harass a past-president by sending out threatening letters.

If they are stupid enough to take me to court, I will win.

Over its history, no other organization has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees and severance payouts. In 10 years it has burned though over 40 staff, through poor management and board incompetence. Now I see on their website the latest circus act at the Crop Production Show. What’s next, will they dress their communications person up in a monkey suit and give away used vacuum cleaners to its members?

As it was so very well put in “ APAS Nurses” WP letter Jan. 27. This once respected voice for farmers has fallen to a sham. Only when (Saskatchewan Association of Rural Muncipalities) sets up an ag policy committee with a public forum to gather farmer’s input, will the producers of this province have a credible voice. And it would only cost us about $1,500 per RM.

Glenn Blakley,Tantallon Sask.

The individual commodity organizations are somewhat effective representing their individual commodities. The left and the right organizations have limited representation with individual membership.

The only general farmer organization completely lacks credibility, with a president that no longer farms and lives in Regina. The left leaning staff sends out monthly updates to the membership with negative cartoons of the federal agriculture minister, and then the board wonders why they can’t get meetings with the government.

Then the ultimate insult to the Saskatchewan farmer’s intelligence: they send a communications person with a presentation to the Standing Committee on Agriculture.

The only positive thing they have done for farmers is get them a $10 gift card at Mark’s Work Wearhouse. In many of their member RMs the real farmers won’t even waste their time to be a representative for this organization.

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities is trying to fill the void on agriculture policy, but having one vice-president dealing with agriculture policy does not deal effectively with the large number of policy issues that farmers need to influence now and in the future.

It is time to reinstate the agriculture councillor in all the RMs. Then develop agriculture policy at a public forum with an elected committee that would lobby and consult with all levels of government.

This is the only way farmers can have a positive impact on current and future agriculture policies. An effective model that has worked well is the Clearing the Path Committee.

Glenn Blakley,

Tantallon, Sask.