CAMROSE, Alta. – The Alberta government has promised to stay out of the debate surrounding the Canadian Wheat Board plebiscite, said the minister of agriculture.
“We’ve said all along that this is a grassroots process and grassroots will make the decision,” said Walter Paszkowski.
“We’ve asked the major stakeholders such as government, or the wheat board to stay out of the process because this is a decision the producers should make as to how they want to market their grain,” he said.
Harold Hannah, chief returning officer for the plebiscite, isn’t planning to organize any meetings.
“I haven’t been set up with a budget to do that,” he said. “My job is simply to run the process,” said Hannah, a former chair of the Agriculture Development Corporation, Alberta Hail and Crop Insurance Corporation and deputy minister within Alberta Agriculture in the marketing and production sector.
Mail-in ballots are available but producers are encouraged to vote at the 60 polling booths set up around the province, mainly in Alberta Agriculture field offices.
