If you wanted to talk to a farmer in the middle of August, you probably wouldn’t go looking for one in a downtown big-city hotel.
But that’s exactly what a panel reviewing the Canadian Wheat Board election system did last week.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t encounter many farmers at its three public meetings in Edmonton, Saskatoon or Winnipeg.
It did find itself being taken to task for the timing and location of its public consultations.
“We’re getting a lot of heat on this,” acknowledged panel member Greg Porozni.
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While there were more than 20 presentations from farm organizations at the three meetings, barely a dozen individual producers showed up. A few told the panel the timing couldn’t have been worse.
The National Farmers Union said it was ridiculous to hold public hearings just as farmers are entering one of the busiest times of the year.
“Panels that hold hearings during harvest are not working in the best interests of farmers,” said NFU president Stewart Wells, adding many farmers didn’t even know they were going on.
Porozni said the panel’s hands were tied by the tight schedule imposed by the federal government.
The panel was appointed by CWB minister Reg Alcock in late June and told to file a report by Oct. 31, a deadline it managed to get extended to the end of November. By the time all the planning had been done, the only time available for public hearings was August.
“We know it’s not good, but that’s the cards we were dealt so we had to make the best of a difficult situation,” said Porozni.
All three members of the review panel – Porozni, from Willingdon, Alta., Cecilia Olver of Corning, Sask., and David Rolfe of Elgin, Man. – are farmers.
Porozni emphasized the panel wants to hear from individual farmers, not just from farm organizations, as was the case at last week’s meetings.
“We would really urge people to send in written submissions,” he said.
The deadline for submissions is Sept. 30. As of last week, the panel has received just a handful of e-mails from individual producers.
NFU executive secretary Terry Pugh said the panel should ask the minister to extend its deadline and then hold a series of public meetings in smaller communities across the Prairies.
“You’d hear more views from more grassroots farmers, especially if you had the meetings after harvest,” he told the panel in Saskatoon.
Porozni wouldn’t speculate on whether more public meetings might be held, but wondered whether it would add much to the process.
“We could have gone out and spent another week in the country, but would we have gotten anything different than we’re getting this way?” he said.
“If we heard from another 20 farmers, it would just be the same range of views we’re already hearing.”
