Farmers expect axe will fall on corn, soy and wheat board amalgamation

By Patrick Meagher

Forget about amalgamating Ontario’s corn, soybean and wheat boards because not enough farmers bothered to vote, say Eastern Ontario grassroot farmers interviewed by Farmers Forum.
While there were about 28,000 eligible voters, a Farmers Forum source said that only up to 3,600 farmers bothered to mail in a ballot by the Sept. 30 deadline. Others argue that farmers don’t know yet the voter turnout because the Farm Product Marketing Commission is not saying more than participation was low. Meantime, the commission is hinting that it needs a few more weeks to come up with a recommendation for the Minister of Agriculture.
“It’s gotten to be a bit of a joke,” said John Vanderspank, Lanark County crop farmer, who is unabashed about having strong opinions on just about everything. In reference to the American election, he quipped, “They can count more than 100 million votes in two hours. We can’t count 2,800 votes in two months.”
At the end of the day it’s the minister’s decision, said Vanderspank, noting that farmers did not clearly vote yes or no and have moved on from this issue. “ We’ve been at this four years. There were so many false starts. A lot of farmers have totally lost interest.”
The members of the Ontario Corn Produces Association, the Ontario Soybean Growers and the Ontario Wheat Board voted on whether or not they wanted one group to represent them: the Grain Producers of Ontario. If the 13 per cent voter participation rate is in the ballpark, that would mean 20,000 to 24,000 or more farmers voted “don’t care” by abstaining.
Good grief. Was it not that important an issue? Many farmers didn’t go to the information meetings. There were about 20 at a Chesterville meeting. Many dairy producers didn’t bother to vote. Some farmers called up neighbours to ask how they would vote.
Corn producer Joe Hickson, near Lindsay, says voter participation was a big disappointment. “The number of producers who didn’t get their vote in on time is absolutely scary.”
He said he spoke to 25 to 30 farmers who didn’t vote or voted late. He said one farmer asked him in the first week of November how he should vote.
Others felt betrayed because they thought amalgamation was going to be about saving money. One farmer, who favoured amalgamation, was incensed when he learned that an amalgamated board would keep all of the staff of the three boards, even though some jobs would be redundant. “That’s socialism,” he said and asked that he not be identified. “A businessman doesn’t operate like that.”
North Gower crop farmer Dwight Foster said that “the vote was probably very low” and expected amalgamation would be put on ice. Foster was extremely disappointed after so much work went into getting amalgamation on the agendas of the three commodity boards. “Democracy takes work and people are not taking the time to vote,” he said, adding that democracy is being taken for granted.
Ontario Corn Producers Association president Leo Gilbeault said that if amalgamation does not happen, the question will not be revisited for five years.