Phot credit: Dreamstime

By Curtis Galbraith

Agriculture

AWG chair urging farmers to take part in amalgamation vote

Oct 26, 2022 | 12:20 PM

The Chair of the Alberta Wheat Commission is urging farmers to cast a ballot in an amalgamation vote.

The Commission and Alberta Barley are holding a plebiscite on the two organizations officially merging into one.

Sexsmith producer Greg Sears says these votes, historically, have low turnouts.

“We’re trying to encourage people to get out and vote, which in this case, that’s from your computer or phone.”

“I think right now, we’re looking to match or beat what was the Alberta Beef (Producers) plebiscite of a couple of years ago, which was 10 per cent of eligible producers.”

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He says they want to leave the decision up to producers.

“We had a sub-committee reviewing the issue in the past year and some of the opportunities had to do with cost savings associated with reduced duplication of meetings and audits and annual reports and things like that.”

Sears adds the two have had the same staff for over three years as well.

He says farmers should have received their voting information by now.

“The farmers should have received a letter which will have the PIN number for voting. It will be a single letter for both commissions. The same PIN number would be used for both.”

“If they do feel that they should have received one and didn’t, we encourage them to contact either Alberta Wheat or Alberta barley via the website.”

Anyone who did not get a voter PIN can also contact the Help Desk. Contact information can be found here.

Farmers who have paid levies on wheat or barley sales from January 1, 2020, to April 30 this year are eligible to vote in this plebiscite.

The deadline to vote is November 1 at noon.