Three directors at the heart of an election controversy at Saskatchewan Pulse Growers have resigned.
Shawn Buhr, Jim Moen and Bert Vandenberg stepped down from the board effective Dec. 13 after completing the first year of their three-year terms.
Their resignations come two days after the election of John Bennett and re-election of Vicki Dutton to the board.
Buhr, Moen and Vandenberg, who were all elected to the board by acclamation in 2011, had been embroiled in an election controversy this year.
The three directors handpicked and then publicly endorsed Robert Hundeby and Trevor Simpson to run in the 2012 campaign.
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They threw their support behind the two young farmers in ads that ran in community newspapers and in a news release.
That raised the ire of other candidates running in the election and of some of the levy-paying growers.
In response, the board changed its governance policies forbidding directors from endorsing or campaigning for anybody but themselves in an election.
Buhr, Moen and Vandenberg apologized to their fellow directors and to the other candidates running in the election.
However, one of them is now sounding unapologetic about his actions.
“It was our choice to resign,” said Buhr. “We weren’t prompted, weren’t asked and I think in honesty caught the chairman off guard.”
Buhr said he resigned because he lost confidence in how the board is being governed.
He wasn’t happy with the changes forbidding him from endorsing a candidate.
“As a Canadian, I have the right to express my choice,” he said.
Buhr told Moen and Vandenberg about his intention to resign and he said they followed suit. He said it was a tough decision because he has a lot of respect for the organization.
“It was a difficult year. I’ll be honest. It was a hard year. But I thought that the board was making great strides and great progress,” he said.
Buhr knew the decision would put the board in a bind and he didn’t want to do that, but he also didn’t want to stay.
The board responded to the resignations by appointing Tim Wiens and Corey Loessin to fill two of the three vacancies. They will be on the board for a one-year term after which they can run for election.
Wiens, a farmer from Herschel, Sask., was unsuccessful in his 2012 campaign to get elected to the SPG board.
SPG chair Morgan Nunweiler said the board approached the two candidates with the highest vote totals who weren’t elected to the board. Wiens accepted. The other candidate did not.
Loessin, who did not run in the 2012 campaign, is one of two Saskatchewan growers appointed by SPG to sit on the board of Pulse Canada, along with two SPG directors.
That leaves a third vacancy that will be filled after the new six-person board meets for the first time during January at Pulse Days.
Nunweiler acknowledged there have been a lot of director and staff resignations at SPG in recent years, but he has full confidence that the board and staff are dedicated to maximizing the value of grower levy dollars.
The board is committed to meeting the organization’s strategic goals of boosting on-farm yields 30 percent by 2025, increasing pulse exports to seven million tonnes by the same year and ensuring continued unimpeded access to markets.
“It’s simple what we need to do. That’s not changing. We’ve got jobs to do and we’re here to make sure that our levy payers’ dollars are being used in the most effective and efficient manner possible,” he said.
“We are confident in our readiness both at the board level and with the staff to take on the challenges necessary in order to achieve these strategic goals.”