Dear Editor:
With the demise of the Single desk of the CWB, the Federal Conservative and provincial Saskatchewan governments are quickly establishing a wheat and barley commission to collect funds from farmers and do research for the grain trade! Leading this noble mission to develop the wheat and barley commissions are Cherlyn Nagel Jolly and Bill Cooper. One of whom who isn't even an active farmer!
These two government appointees are advocates of acreage based voting. They believe farmers who have more acres than their neighbors should have more say in those organizations, this was a point they pressed for years in the CWB elections. Since the CWB will no longer have elections one would assume they would keep to their principles and promote this acreage based voting in their commissions.
It's also interesting Bill Cooper a retired farmer always previously complained about the Canadian Wheat Board Directors elections "allowed retired farmers" to vote if they had a permit book and owned land. Now as a retired farmer he is leading the creation of an organization designed to take money from farmers?
I wonder what sort of interest farmers will have in these elections knowing the mega voters will carry the day, whoever they are. And if acreage based voting is not brought in one has to wonder who is really running these commissions since these two hardened individuals have always advanced acreage based voting in their previous lives!
Eric Sagan
Melville, SK
