Sheep producers get new chair, see painful costs of running board

GUELPH — Ontario sheep producers voted in a new chairman of their marketing agency at the annual meeting last month after Perth-area chairman Allan Burn declined to run again.

Burn faced intense heat from some members – specifically in district 8 (Prince Edward, Lennox, Hastings) — who argued the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency (OSMA), which represents about 4,000 sheep farmers, was wasting money by overspending on board meetings. The new chairman is Marcus Wand of Simcoe County. Chris Kennedy, of Amherst Island, (also in District 8) was elected vice-chair.

While a comparable marketing board in Saskatchewan spent $7,500 for one year for all five board meetings, the annual general meeting revealed that OSMA spent $25,819 on its chairman alone. For 11 directors, OSMA paid about $93,000 in its last fiscal year for board meetings, according to a break down of director expenses presented at the annual general meeting.

Following the annual meeting, sheep farmer Linda Huizenga said there was relief from district 8 members that other regions had also expressed concerns about financial management and that producers left the meeting feeling optimistic.

"People are responsibly optimistic," agreed vice-chair Chris Kennedy. "There was no shouting match. There was no great antagonism. It went very smoothly."

Kennedy, who owns 650 ewes, said that a rumour about increasing fees produced a summer of discontent among producers. "There is no check-off fee increase this year. That was a rumour that got out of hand," he said. I’m not surprised people got agitated about that."

The fact that the marketing agency was without a general manager since May contributed to communications problems for the agency, Kennedy said.