CALGARY – The prairie grain co-operative didn’t change without a fight.
“It’s a dark day for farmers in Alberta if this resolution goes through,” said Jack Ward of Arrowwood, Alta., during an Agricore shareholders meeting to vote if Agricore and United Grain Growers should merge.
“We had one of the greatest grain handling organizations in the world,” said Ward. He wondered how the company got into such deep debt that it was forced to merge with a company many farmers feel is philosophically different from the grain co-op built by their parents and grandparents.
Read Also
Stock dogs show off herding skills at Ag in Motion
Stock dogs draw a crowd at Ag in Motion. Border collies and other herding breeds are well known for the work they do on the farm.
But in the end, 79 percent of the B class shareholders voted to merge, 78 percent of the C class shareholders voted in favour, and 75 percent of Agricore delegates voted to merge the companies.
“It is a page in history without any doubt,” said Agricore president Neil Silver.
“There was a lot of emotion of changing from the heritage we had, based against the business deal that had a lot of promise for the future.”
The merger will make Agricore United the largest grain company in Canada and give it a lot of power in the grain industry, he said.
But the federal Competition Bureau must approve the deal that Silver hopes will be complete by Nov. 1.
Silver said they expect to save $50 million a year by operating just one computer system, having one chief executive officer, one board of directors and one set of head office staff.
About 20 to 25 percent of the $50 million savings will come from staff reduction.
“A big chunk of it is people,” Silver said.
He wouldn’t say how many jobs would be lost, but there are estimates of 500 to 600, mostly in administration.
Gordon Cummings, outgoing CEO of Agricore, said there were 300 fewer positions after Alberta Wheat Pool and Manitoba Pool Elevators merged to form Agricore in 1998.
Most of the opposition to the merger came from Manitoba delegates, who said their members weren’t in favour of the deal.
Robert Vopni, a farmer delegate from Swan River, Man., said after 40 years of being a loyal customer, not hauling a bushel of grain to anyone but Manitoba Pool Elevators or Agricore, he will no longer drive out of his way to haul to Agricore United.
“It doesn’t matter a damn who you haul your grain to now. I’m very disgusted. We’ve lost our last grain co-op facility in Canada.”
Vopni spent nine hours flying in a small plane to cast his vote at the Alberta meeting.
The farmer, who was on the restructuring committee when the Alberta and Manitoba pools merged, said few of the promised benefits from that merger materialized and he’s worried the same will happen this time.
Bryan Woronuk, of Rycroft, Alta., said no one is happy that farmers have lost their last true grain co-op.
“One common factor throughout the delegates, the board and staff was the profound sense of loss of our co-op,” said Woronuk, who left his swather to attend the meeting.
“Keeping the co-op was everyone’s wish.”
However, tough choices had to be made if Agricore was to survive another year, he added.
Without the $50 million the merger is hoped to save each year, Agricore would have been forced to begin selling assets, he said.
