EDMONTON (Staff) – Cattle producers have it, barley and canola producers have it and Alberta’s newest farm organization wants it.
Ron Leonhardt, president of Unifarm and its reincarnation, the Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, puts the blame squarely on the provincial government and other farm organizations for not allowing Wild Rose to charge a check-off fee to help fund the organization.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am disappointed with the attitude of some groups and I am disappointed with the attitude of the provincial government,” said Leonhardt during his president’s speech to the convention.
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“One major group who is negative asked us the following: ‘Why should we support your proposal when you could end up being numerically larger than we are,’ ” Leonhardt said.
“Why is the provincial government not being supportive of us when they have given strong support and nurtured other groups?” he asked.
“Maybe they don’t want a general farm organization in the province. Maybe they think it’s better to have the farm community fractured into a number of groups,” Leonhardt said later.
A group of Unifarm directors approached agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski about having a checkoff deducted from the sale of each farm licence plate to help finance the organization, said Leonhardt.
But Paszkowski told them to think of something more original.
No one from the government was available for comment.
Alan Holt, first vice-president of the former Unifarm and now of the new Wild Rose organization, said: “The government keeps changing the rules on us. We have to tell the government we will not allow certain commodity groups to determine the destiny of this farm organization.”
In the end, Wild Rose decided to shelve the checkoff idea for now and concentrate on gathering memberships and building a new farm organization.
Added delegate Robert Fil-kohazy: “People can vote with their chequebook. We are offering farmers a challenge. Do you want a farm organization or do you not?”
