“We are the first victims of the refundable checkoff,” said Alberta Bison Producers chairman Marvin Moore following the BPA’s last-ever annual meeting here earlier this month. A resolution to dissolve the commission effective June 30, 2012 was passed unanimously.
The BPA as a marketing commission under the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act was created by order-in-council in 2000 as the Alberta Bison Commission (ABC). Subsequently in 2004 the ABC, the Alberta Bison Association and the Peace Country Bison Association were amalgamated into the Bison Producers of Alberta. As a marketing commission the BPA had checkoff powers, but any levy had to be refundable.
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Moore said the refundability aspect of the checkoff turned out to be the undoing of the BPA. “We felt the checkoff was bringing in only 20 per cent of what it should. It’s been a real struggle to collect the checkoff.”
One of the biggest problems facing the BPA was collecting the $3 per head on all bison sales by Alberta producers. Unlike other commissions for cattle, sheep and hogs, there were few main sales points that the BPA could use for checkoff collection. Due to the nature of the bison industry there are multiple buyers, dealers, packers, private sales, feedlot operators and exporters, many of whom did not co-operate with the checkoff collection process. Even when the checkoff was collected, refund requests were considerable.
“Over 65 per cent of the checkoff that was collected was refunded by producer request. We never seem to have enough money to do anything,” said Moore.
Another issue affecting the BPA checkoff was the collection of a national checkoff administered by the national producer organization, the Canadian Bison Association (CBA). Bison producers in Canada are required by law to purchase a national ID tag for every bison. The CBA manages the sale of those special tags and adds a national checkoff of $8 to the cost of each tag. Half of that checkoff is sent back to the provincial organizations, but it can only be used for promotional purposes. Although the national checkoff is also refundable, many Alberta producers felt that they were the only producers in Canada having to pay a double checkoff. On top of that they had to pay an annual membership fee.
Although bison producers voted to end the BPA as a commission, they then by another resolution voted to resurrect the BPA as a regular membership association under the societies act. The new BPA is to assume all the assets and obligations of the former BPA and operate under the same name and representation. Members then increased the membership fee to $125 annually to make up for the loss of checkoff revenue. Moore said, “We have about $200,000 in the bank so we are not broke.”
Producers at the meeting expressed some concern over the recognition of the new BPA by the provincial government especially with access to programs. Moore, a former minister of agriculture said, “From my experience it doesn’t matter if you are a commission or an association, producers will be treated the same and access and input into programs will remain the same.”
