Drought, market barriers, COVID, cybersecurity and transportation issues challenge, but advocacy remains focus
Alberta Canola’s 33rd annual general meeting held in Lethbridge focused on its shifting role as an advocacy body targeting policies to help producers succeed.
Roger Chevraux, Alberta Canola’s chair, told the AGM the group’s mission continues to be focused on advocacy for the industry, educating the public and supporting research while, “our vision is to be leaders in agriculture.”
Underpinning that vision is that “we put our people first, we do the right thing and everything we do is for the benefit of the canola growers in Alberta.”
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Lingering challenges face canola growers from the fallout of the global COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding supply chain issues. However, Chevraux said the weather, war in Ukraine and global market barriers also produced their own problems for canola growers.
Chevraux said Alberta Canola continues to engage provincial grade-school educators to help promote the industry while holding regional meetings with growers to garner input from farmers.
“As we look back at this season and forward to the next, Alberta Canola continues to strive for change that supports canola growers in this province,” said Chevraux. “That said, we cannot do it alone. The more producers that are engaged in our conference… to share their valuable thoughts and opinions, the better we can effectively work together.”
Canola production in Alberta rebounded in 2023 to levels roughly equivalent that seen in 2019, 2020 and 2021 following the drought.
But the drought did appear to have taken a toll on Alberta Canola’s budget with the organization running two consecutive deficits of more than $1 million after running 15 surpluses over the past two decades, outlined Ian Chitwood, chair of the finance committee.
“As a commission, we don’t want to run either consistent surpluses or consistent deficits. We want to make sure we have a fairly steady dollar flow and we’re putting producers’ dollars to work,” said Chitwood.
Despite the situation of the past two years, member equity continues to be high at more than $7 million, which Chitwood said leaves the organization in strong shape to weather deficit years.
It was revealed Alberta Canola was the victim of a cyberattack in August that resulted in a fraudulent invoice being paid out. A portion of the funds were recovered and Chitwood outlined that Alberta Canola has reviewed and improved measures to prevent a similar incident occurring and has bought insurance coverage to cover cyber scams.
Pressed by those in attendance for more information on the incident, Chevraux said the matter continues to be investigated by police.
“Because of that, we unfortunately can’t disclose everything but I will say the amount of money, relative to the budget, was certainly very, very small,” he said.
Executive director Karla Bergstrom reviewed the changes in provincial regulations allowing Alberta Canola to create its own bylaws governing the organization.
“This will help us by moving these governance related provisions into bylaws. It will help us facilitate changes that are more meaningful to growers,” said Bergstrom.
The legislative changes made in 2020 allow Alberta Canola and 19 other agricultural groups to make internal governance changes without requiring government approval.
Bergstrom said there are seven policy changes the organization is looking to make within its bylaws.
Those include provisions that will allow members to view financial records, the ability to call special meetings, the ability to provide virtual meeting options, the ability to remove a director and a requirement to post nominations in newspapers. It will also halve the current 10 signatures required for nominations while upping the maximum number of consecutive years directors can sit on the board from six to nine years.
Members passed the motion to accept the bylaws, which now require approval from the marketing council and agriculture minister before they can take effect.
Bergstrom said she expects that to happen later this year.
Director nominations for the four open positions saw two women in regions 1 and 7, Christi Friesen and Paula Law, acclaimed and two women elected, Jeanette Andrashewski in Region 4 and Cheryl Westman in Region 10.