The federal Conservative government soon will be appointing a new commissioner to the Canadian Grain Commission.On Aug. 15, commissioner Cam Dahl will leave after completing his three-year term.”I am not looking for a re-appointment,” he said June 23. “I do not plan to retire here so at this stage in life, it is a good time to look for the next thing.”Dahl, 41, was a Parliament Hill political aide to Manitoba Reform MP and opposition agriculture critic Howard Hilstrom after 1997.He later became executive director of the Conservative-friendly Grain Growers of Canada lobby group before being appointed to the Grain Commission in 2007.In an interview June 23, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said he wants legislation that would reform the role of the commission, including its current government-dependent financial status.Opposition critics insist Ritz’s reform would reduce the commission’s role in protecting farmers from the power of bigger players in the grain industry.Dahl’s impending departure offers Ritz an opportunity for another appointment decision.Based on past appointment performance, the next commissioner will be sympathetic to the Conservative reform agenda.The chief commissioner of the Winnipeg-based grain industry regulatory body is Elwin Hermanson, a former Reform MP who once employed Ritz as a political worker. Ritz appointed him chief commissioner.The assistant chief commissioner is Jim Smolik, a former president of Grain Growers of Canada that supports the government’s grain deregulation agenda.The open commissioner position will be advertised.
New grain commission head to be appointed
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