New Saskatchewan legislation that would allow the agriculture minister to eliminate marketing boards has caused uncertainty for the province’s single-desk hog agency, says its general manager.
Jim Morris said it’s unnerving that the minister could dissolve a marketing board like SPI at the request of a major packing company, for example.
“It’s called a pistol to the head, I would say,” Morris said after speaking to the Regina Chamber of Commerce about the hog industry. “He’ll probably have to declare what his intentions really are as (the bill) goes through second and third reading and we’ll see what he has to say.”
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Agriculture minister Eric Upshall has said the bill can work both ways – a board can also be dismantled at the request of producers.
SPI has been in negotiations for some time over whether to continue single-desk selling.
Date not setd
John Germs, SPI chair, said all producers and delegates will be called to a meeting to discuss a package of proposals. He could not say when that will be held.
“From that meeting we will determine the future direction of the monopoly,” he said. “Producers have to know what’s going on. There’s been so much behind-the-scenes talk going on.”
He thinks Upshall will wait for producers to go through this process before stepping in to make a decision for the industry.
“I think they’re going to give us the benefit of the doubt,” Germs said.
The Liberal opposition criticized the NDP government last week for defending single-desk marketing for grain but acting to do away with the single desk for hogs.
Upshall said all marketing institutions have to be examined to make sure they are still serving producers’ best interests.
“In the case of the Canadian Wheat Board I think it’s very obvious that it does, because of the barley vote, for example,” he said.
Harvey Wagner, a hog producer near Hague, Sask., said he and some other members of the Saskatchewan Association of Hog Producers aren’t worried about losing their single desk.
“If you’re not happy with the way the sales are then you have the opportunity to go out and find your own market,” he said. “There’s significant potential in the industry, but we need to first come into line with our neighbors to the east and west.
“Some people fear it will hurt them but I don’t think that it will. There’s more than one way of selling hogs,” he said, listing brokers and pool yards as examples.
