CAMROSE, Alta. (Staff) – A group of farmers wants the Alberta Barley Commission to stop its lawsuit against the Canadian Wheat Board.
“I support the wheat board and I didn’t feel the barley growers should be in this kind of litigation,” said Stan Sather of Wanham who made the motion at a barley commission meeting in Falher, Alta., last week.
The barley commission has spent about $200,000 so far in a Charter of Rights and Freedom challenge of the Canadian Wheat Board Act.
“It’s cost a lot of money. I felt the association has gone ahead and done this without full consensus of the people,” said Sather.
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The lawsuit was launched in 1993 and the wheat board has used every delaying tactic possible to stop the challenge, said commission director Marvin Nakonechny.
“We’re prepared to spend money for it,” said Nakonechny of Millet.
In 1995, the barley commission took in about $1.4 million from a producer checkoff on barley sales. About $742,273 has been allocated for research, up from the $476,346 spent on research last year.
Priorities wrong
Yvonne Sinkevich, also at the Falher meeting said the commission should be spending money on research, not fighting the wheat board.
“This is far too much. That’s shocking. We had no idea how much. It should have been made public,” she said.
But barley commission director Derwin Massey said they want to develop new markets for barley, but can’t until the wheat board monopoly is eliminated.
In the annual report, Clifton Foster, general manager said: “The Alberta Barley Commission eventually would like to focus less on policy development and more on the other areas within its mandate but the major regulatory issues facing farmers today are vital to the future of our industry.”
