REGINA — Saskatchewan cattle producers are sending a strong message to agriculture minister Darrel Cunningham — don’t mess with the Cattle Marketing Deduction Act.
Commercial and purebred cattle organizations attending the Saskatchewan Livestock Association convention passed unanimous resolutions saying the act should be left as it is.
Livestock association president Alf Davie said he had been told changes to the act would be among the first introduced when the legislative session resumes Feb. 7.
Producers are upset the legislation will merge two acts. The Cattle Marketing Deduction Act governs a voluntary producer checkoff, while the Horned Cattle Purchases Act is a non-refundable tax. The planned changes would see one advisory committee govern both acts, while the accounts remain separate.
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“The industry is doing well — the money’s great, the movement’s great,” said Davie. “That’s why the concern. Leave us to look after ourselves.”
The government wants to add representatives from the National Farmers Union, Sask. Wheat Pool, Sask. Association of Rural Municipalities, and one voting and one non-voting member-at-large to the advisory committee.
Carl Block, a Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association member from Abbey, Sask., said while the members were in favor of opening the cattle marketing act to increase the voluntary checkoff, they don’t want the other changes.
“We now find the government thinks it’s time they get their fingers in it and change the structure,” Block said. “We don’t want that act opened if it means we go through a battle to protect the integrity of our producers’ money.
“It’s very disturbing that these changes were even brought up.”
The members are concerned that the NFU represents all commodities, not just livestock, and that the pool is a corporation.
“They are marketers, not producers,” said Moose Jaw feedlot owner Glen Thompson about Sask Pool. “It’s beyond me why they want to sit on this board.”
Dwayne Thompson, of Kelliher, said it would be “a backwards step to reopen our act and allow a multinational conglomerate into our association.”
Peter Rempel, of Saskatchewan Agriculture, told the stock growers the purpose of combining the two acts would be to amalgamate resources and reduce the committee structure.
But Neil Jahnke, chair of the advisory committee, said in an interview that’s “lunacy.” He said the committee will be twice as large and require twice as many meetings, which will cost more in the long run.
The stock growers also passed a resolution calling for the horned cattle legislation to remain as it is.
