New Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Laurent Pellerin has promised to make strengthening the CFA financial base a key priority, but he concedes options are limited for finding more money.
He is musing about a controversial proposition as one possibility, talking to the federal government about a national farmer checkoff for the organization, including farmers not affiliated with the federation.
“There is no plan at the moment, there is no proposal on the table and it is early, but yes, that is one possibility that we can explore,” he said in an interview the day after election as the first Quebec-based president of Canada’s largest farm lobby.
Pellerin inherits a national farm lobby with a budget of slightly more than $1 million.
Several of its members including Dairy Farmers of Canada, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and Quebec’s l’Union des Producteurs Agricoles have budgets many times higher than that.
Pellerin said asking CFA member organizations for higher annual dues is not a solution, since many member affiliates have funding problems of their own.
