Ontario Pork chair steps down

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario Pork board chair Wilma Jeffray won’t be seeking re-election as chair and probably won’t run for the 2012 board either.

Jeffray, who runs a diversified family-owned farming operation in Grey Bruce, is participating in meetings in Montreal with the Quebec pork board and wasn’t available for an interview. But Ontario Pork spokesman Keith Robbins says typically board members serve for three-year terms and the board chair runs for election and is elected annually. Although there is no limit on the number of consecutive terms for the board chair position, typically chairs step down after three years when their term as a board member ends.

He says Jeffray’s term as a board member is finished. Robbins adds that Jeffray isn’t stepping down immediately.

Jeffray steered the organization through a huge transition when the Ontario government decided two years ago to give producers a choice in their hog marketing options. As of December 2010, Ontario Pork was no longer the sole marketer of hogs in Ontario. Ontario Pork separates its services into two divisions – universal services and marketing.

The board chair elections are held at the first meeting in April after the annual meeting, being held in Guelph on March 20 and 21 at the Delta Guelph Hotel and Conference Centre on Stone Road West.

Robbins says elections for board members are held at the zone meetings scheduled for late this month. Jeffray represents Zone 3. There will also be elections in Zone 4. BF