The long anticipated merger of the province’s wheat and barley commissions is now one step away from being a done deal.
Delegates at Alberta Wheat’s recent annual general meeting supported a resolution to have a farmer plebiscite on amalgamating with Alberta Barley, whose members took the same step in December.
The vote allows the two groups, which merged their leadership and administrative teams four years ago, “to pursue a farmer plebiscite to amalgamate.” (That means going to the Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council, which will determine details of how the plebiscite will proceed.)
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
“Research would remain the top priority for the proposed amalgamated organization and funding would be merit based,” the two groups say on their mostly merged website, adding checkoffs would remain at $1.09 per tonne for wheat and $1.20 per tonne for barley.
“However, this is subject to review by the first board of the combined organization,” the website states.
The merged board would have 12 directors, two from each of six regions in the province. Each region would also elect four delegates apiece.
Meanwhile, Alberta Wheat delegates also elected a new chair and vice-chair — and both are familiar faces. Sexsmith producer Greg Sears, a former chair of Alberta Canola, has taken on the same role with Alberta Wheat. And former Alberta Barley chair Jason Lenz, from Bentley, is the new vice-chair while Vermilion’s Shawn Jacula takes over from Sears as second vice-chair. Also joining the board are Delburne’s Jason Craig; Dave Bishop, another former Alberta Barley chair who farms near Barons; and Devin Hartzler, who farms near Carstairs.
They replace departing directors Trevor Petersen, Janine Paly and Hannah Konschuh. Past chair Todd Hames will continue to serve on the board as well as chair of Cereals Canada.
