Wheat chair a no show, says eastern growers can't go

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

© AgMedia Inc.

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The chair of Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board says provincial legislation won’t permit its eastern Ontario district to withdraw from the commodity organization.

It “is not something that can be done under the Farm Products Marketing Act which covers all wheat producers in all districts of Ontario,” writes David Whaley in a June 10 letter obtained by Better Farming. The letter is addressed to Bill Duncan, a District 10 delegate representing Lanark and Carlton Counties, and “other interested parties from District 10.”

The letter follows a June 8 email, also obtained by Better Farming, in which Whaley says he would not be able to attend a meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 11, in Winchester, south of Ottawa. “We just finished planting beans and are in the middle of spraying and side dressing corn,” explains Whaley, who farms near Wheatley in western Ontario.

Whaley could not be immediately reached for comment. The meeting has been cancelled, according to local wheat board director John Vanderspank. He says the group is drafting a letter to provincial Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission asking that District 10 members be exempted from paying a check-off fee ($1.35 per tonne of wheat) to the wheat board.

The district includes 488 growers in counties east of Kingston and “the rest of Ontario not included in Districts 1-9,” says the board’s website.  There are about 17,000 wheat producers in the province.

The eastern Ontario growers wanted to meet with Whaley to discuss concerns, including the partial suspension of Vanderspank, their district’s representative to the board. The board has banned him from portions of meetings where confidential information is discussed, and all committee work.

Delegates and executives from most of the district’s local wheat committees told Whaley in a letter last week that the district would withdraw from the board unless Vanderspank was reinstated and several other concerns addressed.

In his letter, Whaley says the board stands by its decision concerning Vanderspank’s partial suspension. He adds that some of the group’s requests have already been met and Vanderspank was aware of this.

The issue of allocating money towards the purchase of a combine to be used at a research station in Kemptville “was discussed at length at our research committee which John was a part,” Whaley writes at one point.

“We are disappointed there has been no mention of board activities that support District 10,” he states at another, citing help to fund a straw collection system for a combine at a New Liskeard research station and a cereal technologist position dedicated to Ontario wheat, including hard red springs grown in eastern Ontario, at the Winnipeg-based Canadian International Grains Institute. 

“They (the board) are attacking me rather than attacking the issues,” says Vanderspank. He says he has informed members of his district about committee discussions. “That’s why they (the district members) are so upset.” BF