Grain commission won’t be handling crop any time soon, say officials
Canaryseed is likely to remain one of the few crops outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian Grain Commission.
There doesn’t appear to be much producer interest in becoming the 21st regulated crop, Kevin Hursh, executive director of the Canaryseed Development Commission of Sask-atchewan, said following a presentation by chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson at last week’s Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.
“Frankly, we didn’t get a deluge of producers afterwards saying, ‘yeah, we should become a regulated crop,’ ” he said.
“There doesn’t seem an adequate level of concern or even a clear direction from producers as to whether they think this is worthwhile.”
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Hermanson told producers there were advantages to becoming a regulated crop, such as producer payment security protection, being able to use the Canada brand to sell their crop abroad and having the commission “go to bat” for them when market access issues arise.
The big disadvantage is that they would be asked to help offset some of the commission’s costs, including the $3 million spent annually administering the payment security program.
“We’re certainly happy to look at moving in that direction if you want,” Hermanson told growers.
That is not the impression he left with Hursh, who said Hermanson led him to believe it would be difficult to add canaryseed to the existing mix of crops.
“It doesn’t sound like if we went and asked it would be a slam dunk. It sounds like we’d have to do some lobbying at a political level,” said Hursh.
The combination of the lack of producer interest and the less than enthusiastic response from the commission means the status quo for canaryseed.
“I foresee very little done on this file unless producers for some reason come and tell board members that they want us to pursue it,” he said.
Hermanson told canaryseed growers the commission is pushing for the passage of Bill C-48, which among other things would give it the power to revamp the producer payment security program.
Twenty-four business failures have occurred over the past 35 years in which the commission was required to help compensate farmers for the combined $17.6 million they were owed.
Producers received 100 percent of what they lost in 20 of those cases, while compensation was as low as 50 cents on the dollar in the other four cases.
The average compensation in all 24 failures was 94 percent, which Hermanson said is a pretty good record.
The problem with the existing program is that licensees have $1 billion of capital tied up in security.
“That’s a lot of money,” he said.
“That’s capital that is tied up that can’t be used by the industry, and we’re looking at ways to reduce that amount.”
Bill C-48 would give the commission the power to establish an industry fund, in which licensees pool the risk of payment failure rather than posting individual bonds or other forms of security.
Hermanson said the commission will not proceed unless it results in reduced costs and administration.
There will be consultation with all sectors of the grain sector if Bill C-48 passes and the commission decides to explore the fund option. However, there is no guarantee it will pass before the looming federal election, which means the bill could be scrapped.
Bill C-48 also extends producer access to binding determination of grade and dockage to 131 process elevators and grain dealers, such as canola crush plants and ethanol facilities.
That right is now limited to the 331 primary elevators.
sean.pratt@producer.com
