SASKATOON – For the first time ever, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is asking its members if they want to stay on the company’s roll books.
This month, the pool’s roughly 80,000 members are being sent their Class A share certificate and pool membership card, along with a letter describing the benefits that go along with membership.
Those who decide they don’t want to be members any more can redeem their share and get back $25 from the pool.
“It’s a way of cleaning up our membership lists,” said pool president Leroy Larsen. “That’s what we’re attempting to do in this process.”
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While the pool has about 80,000 members on the books, fewer than 60,000 actually do business with the company on an ongoing basis.
Nial Kuyek, director of the member relations division, said in a publication distributed to local pool committees that he expects a high percentage of farmer members will retain their Class A share.
Since the pool’s conversion of member equity to shares earlier this year, about 2,500 members who no longer actively farm have withdrawn their membership.
Must be active
The main qualification for owning a Class A membership share is to be an active farmer. It entitles the holder to participate in the pool’s democratic processes, including things like attending local pool meetings or running as a delegate. A Class A share also allows the member to participate in a number of special marketing and financial programs.
“The more benefits we can provide to our members, the more valuable our association with them is,” said Kuyek.
There are no similar qualifications or benefits associated with owning Class B common shares, which are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Kuyek said this is the first time in the pool’s history that members have had an opportunity to terminate their membership, adding the company is now “consistent with the co-operative principle of voluntary membership.”
Stewart Wells, a former pool delegate and farmer from Swift Current, Sask. who fought against the pool’s equity conversion, said he will sell his Class A share back to the company.
“The only reason I haven’t sold it up to now is I was a little foggy about how to do it,” he said, adding he’s been too busy this spring and summer to look into it.
Loss of farmer control
The benefits of holding a membership share put forward by the pool hold no sway with him, he said. The real issue has always been farmer ownership and control of the company, something he says is effectively gone with the new structure.
Before the pool reorganized and began selling shares on the public stock exchange, farmer members built up equity which was paid back after they retired.
