Personnel issues continued to dog the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan last week after the resignation of a staff member and replacement of another office manager.
Raquel Moleski said she could no longer promote membership in an organization that spends too much time on personal agendas and not enough on providing service to farmers.
Moleski had taken a two-week leave after the recent firings of executive director Lynette Keyowski and policy manager Marvin Shauf, and the resignation of former president Ken McBride.
When she was due to return to work, she learned the Regina office locks had been changed for the second time in two weeks, she said.
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“I cannot work for people who do not trust me and that I do not trust,” she wrote in her letter to the board. Someone else widely circulated that letter by e-mail.
In an interview, she said she is disgusted at the way a much-needed organization is pulling itself apart and how personalities are getting in the way of working for farmers.
In addition to her departure, board member Larry Toner, who had been acting as office manager since Keyowski left, was recently replaced.
Friction between APAS employees and board members is not new. Past employees have complained about their inability to do their jobs because of interference from the board.
Shauf said the board seems to be taking a different approach lately, preferring to be more visible by reacting to events and circumstances rather than by developing policy that will earn farmers more money.
“You can easily mistake activity for progress,” said Shauf. “The dollars and cents in agriculture are not in activity and reaction.”
APAS has not made its financial situation public at annual meetings even though taxpayers fund the organization. The membership is listed at 128 on the organization’s website but some RMs have withdrawn their membership this spring.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen said the many different interests farmers bring to an organization do cause problems.
He said some of the frustration right now is that despite all their efforts to implement better policy, they are coming off several consecutive years of poor farm incomes.
“It just behooves us to try even harder,” Friesen said.
While he wouldn’t comment on what might be causing turmoil within APAS, Friesen said he had talked to the board and he believes the organization will pull through.
Saskatchewan is hosting CFA’s semi-annual meeting in July.
