REGINA – There is a growing rift between Saskatchewan’s main farm lobby group and the association that spawned it.
A resolution at the 2003 Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention called on the SARM board to convince “freeloader” rural municipalities to fund the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan. It met with strong opposition.
APAS derives its funding from one-third of the municipalities in the province, which voluntarily pay an annual fee to belong to the farm lobby group. The other two-thirds have opted not to contribute.
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During a break in the conference, SARM vice-president Robert Schultz said it’s time for APAS to look for another method of revenue generation, like selling individual memberships in the organization.
“They have chosen not to go that route. As a matter of fact, they have been so bold as to tell me this is an easy way to get money, why would they spend time and energy trying to collect memberships from people,” said Schultz.
Gerald Faye, a councillor with the RM of Emerald, advanced the motion. He considered removing the word “freeloader” from the resolution but decided to leave it in to spark debate.
“The purpose of it was to focus a little bit on the SARM board that they would maybe get more onside with APAS. I think sometimes SARM seems like they think APAS is stepping on their toes.”
Faye said his municipality pays $12,000 a year to belong to APAS. He wishes more RMs would follow suit.
“We could do a lot of graveling with that money. There is a lot of other (projects) we could use it for. But that’s how strong we feel how important APAS is.”
The resolution didn’t generate the response he hoped for. It was soundly rejected by the delegates and by SARM’s board of directors.
SARM president Neal Hardy can’t understand why APAS supporters continue to raise the issue at annual meetings. He said they are going to lose the vote two-to-one every time.
He said APAS was formed out of a 1999 SARM resolution, but it’s time for APAS to look for funding outside the municipal structure.
“I think it should be a truly producer organization funded by a checkoff or whatever you want to have,” said Hardy.
“I’ll be the first to join if they go that route.”
In the meantime, it isn’t SARM’s job to promote the organization to municipalities, he said. They don’t do that with the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, the National Farmers Union or any other farm group.
The growing fissure between SARM and APAS was further evidenced by another resolution calling on SARM to encourage the provincial government to delay signing the federal agricultural policy framework agreement until various concerns have been addressed.
It is a stance that APAS has already taken.
But Hardy warned delegates if they reject the APF agreement they may have no safety net to fall back on in 2004, a risk few farmers can afford.
“I believe this is the only program that’s going to be available for the upcoming year,” he said during a debate on the resolution, which was later defeated.
