For the past 15 years, Prairie Pools Inc. has been a prominent farm lobby, representing the interests of the three prairie pools to MPs and reporting back west on Ottawa developments.
Its offices are a block from Parliament Hill. Its representatives are familiar figures in political Ottawa.
Nov. 2, PPI disappears as the pools go their separate ways.
In its place in Ottawa will be two new offices. Agricore (the company being formed by the amalgamation of Alberta Wheat Pool and Manitoba Pool Elevators) will have one lobby office and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool will have another.
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“There is a changed relationship,” Sask Pool vice-president Marv Shauf said in an Oct. 14 interview. “There are some differences. They are now a single entity and chose to not work with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool any more.”
Alberta Pool acting president John Pearson said he expects Agricore and Sask Pool to have enough policy differences that made working together in one organization seem impractical.
In early October, when the PPI board met and agreed to dissolve, it marked the last truly joint lobby. Under the PPI umbrella, the three pools lobbied MPs on farm income and trade issues.
But both pool reps said there will be co-operation in future on some lobby issues, despite the split.
“We still see ourselves as having some opportunities to work with Sask Pool on some issues but on others, I expect we will have political positions which may be divergent or at odds,” said Pearson.
Added Shauf in a separate interview: “I think there will be a number of opportunities for Agricore and Saskatchewan Pool to work together but at this point, Agricore is looking at a separate presence in Ottawa and we are looking at what we need in Ottawa as well.”
Agricore will keep the present PPI office and staff while Sask Pool will find an office elsewhere, with new staff.
Both companies are expected to join the Canadian Federation of Agriculture separately. Since the mid-1980s, PPI has been the pool presence in the national farm lobby organization.
