(Tisdale) The President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) issued an invitation to all wheat growers in the province to collectively form a new provincial Wheat Commission.
"I am taking the opportunity today to issue an open invitation to all wheat growers in Saskatchewan to join our effort to form a Saskatchewan Wheat Commission," announced Norm Hall, APAS President, speaking on April 14 to delegates at the Hudson Bay Route Association's 69th Annual General Meeting held in Tisdale. "We need your experience and your point of view. We need all types of wheat producers to make their interests known."
APAS believes that with the implementation of Bill C18: The Marketing Freedom Act, there is a void that needs to be filled in the areas of research, grain quality, market development, branding and farmer advocacy. Besides the role that used to be played in these areas by the CWB, farmers now need a way to ensure that the Western Grain Research Foundation has an ongoing revenue stream; that the function of the Canadian International Grains Institute is maintained and that ways are found to promote wheat and barley and continue to develop markets for them.
In trying to facilitate the creation of a Saskatchewan Wheat Commission, APAS believes the greatest hope for success lies in bringing together wheat growers at the grassroots level to ensure the commission represents everyone's interests. Towards that end, the APAS Board passed a resolution at their March Board Meeting that APAS should spearhead efforts to create a Wheat commission in Saskatchewan.
"We are seeking broad support among wheat growers in the province," stressed Hall. "We are asking producers to put aside philosophical and political differences and to work together. We want the process to be open and inclusive and for the voices heard to be representative of all the wheat growers in the province."
APAS is Saskatchewan's general farm organization formed to provide farmers and ranchers with a democratically elected, grassroots, non-partisan, producer organization based on rural municipal boundaries. As the united voice of thousands of agricultural producers in Saskatchewan, we strive to represent the views of a wide variety of agricultural stakeholders in order to form comprehensive policies that can benefit all sectors of society.
