WINNIPEG – Bob Winfield’s first annual meeting as a delegate for Manitoba Pool Elevators was also his last.
The rookie representative from Grandview, Man., traveled to Winnipeg last week to vote the pool out of existence.
“I guess I picked an interesting time to start,” he said with a laugh at the end of the meeting’s first day.
The 77 MPE delegates last week gave their final seal of approval to a merger with Alberta Wheat Pool and the creation of Agricore. At the same time, their counterparts with Alberta Pool were going through the same process some 1,200 kilometres to the east in Calgary.
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It was a strange annual meeting for Manitoba Pool. Normally a five-day affair open to the public, with lots of policy debate, discussions of business results and plans and speeches from industry leaders, this year’s session was sandwiched into two days.
It was all business, with a brief discussion of last year’s record-setting financial results and most of the remaining time devoted to merger issues, including the presentation of videos describing the history of Manitoba Pool and outlining the future of Agricore.
The mood in the hallways during coffee and lunch breaks seemed subdued, which some delegates attributed to the recognition that 73 years of history was about to come to an end.
“It’s kind of hard to realize that all of a sudden, yeah, this is the last annual meeting,” said long-time delegate and director Butch Harder from the community of Lowe Farm. “I think it’s just starting to hit home to a lot of them.”
Robert Good of Oakner, attending his 14th annual meeting as a delegate, said that while there is excitement about the creation of Agricore, that’s tempered by other emotions for many of the delegates.
“Oh definitely, a lot of us are feeling sad,” he said. “I guess it’s down with the old and up with the new, but we know we’ll never see Manitoba Pool again.”
Winfield said when he was growing up, almost every town he drove by had the familiar pool sign prominently displayed on the local elevator. He’ll miss that, he said, adding that many delegates and members were disappointed the word “pool” wasn’t incorporated in the name of the new company.
But he believes the sign is all that’s really going to disappear as far as members and customers are concerned.
“The staff is going to be the same, the operations are going to be the same, and hopefully our marketing will be improved and our options are going to be better as farmers,” he said, adding that the biggest changes will come at head office and among management.
No one was expressing any doubts or second thoughts about the merger, which was effectively approved at a special joint meeting of the two pools in Winnipeg in July.
Delegates said it was clear their company had to do something dramatic if it was to survive in an increasingly competitive grain
industry.
“We all realized that if we didn’t get bigger, we’d get smaller,” said David Aime of Clandeboye. “Some other big outfit would come along and get us.”
The 40-year pool member said the most important thing for the new company’s success is to stay true to its co-operative roots and develop close contact with grassroots farmers.
“The feeling I get in the country is it is very important we remain a co-operative and not follow the route of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to the Toronto Stock Exchange,” said Good.
At the same time, he acknowledged that being a co-op isn’t enough to get people coming up the driveway to do business.
Agricore will have to offer farmers a level of service and prices equal to the competition.
Harder said he’s concerned that maintaining and developing contact with farmer members will be more difficult with a bigger company.
The Manitoba Pool delegates said there will have to be a concerted effort by members and delegates from the two provinces to set aside any political or philosophical differences that may separate them and to overcome any lingering regional loyalties.
Agricore is one company, and provincial boundaries no longer exist, said Good: “That’s very important if it’s going to succeed and it may take a little while.”
