Adjustments proposed for Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers' board

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

A proposal to reduce the number of people needed for a quorum at Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers board meetings is open for comments on the Ontario government regulatory registry.

The proposal calls for the quorum requirement to be reduced by one voting member to six people from seven. There are 10 voting members on the board, who are elected or appointed from each of the two greenhouse vegetable board’s districts.

The chair, appointed annually by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, is also on the board but that position doesn’t have a vote, according to the proposal.

George Gilvesy, greenhouse vegetable growers general manager, says the requirement to have seven people for a quorum at board meetings was imposed on the board “a number of years ago” by the commission.

The quorum requirement for the greenhouse board has been different than other organizations. The greenhouse vegetable growers board requested the same quorum rules as many other marketing boards, which only need to have 60 per cent of their members present at board meetings for a quorum.

Gilvesy says it has sometimes been difficult to get a quorum of seven.

“We’ve never been without quorum for quite some time but we just thought it (the rule change) would make it a little easier for us,” he says.

Instructions on how to comment are in the proposal. BF