Alberta Bulletin

Alberta Canola’s 32nd Annual General Meeting – Tuesday January 25, 2022

Alberta Canola’s Annual General Meeting will take place virtually on January 25, 2022. Canola growers in Alberta will be able to participate in and vote at the AGM.

In order to ensure the integrity of the voting procedure, growers joining us online will need to register to vote. Growers attending the AGM online must register to vote by January 11 to ensure voting platform access at albertacanola.com/vote.

AGM Agenda includes:

•  a review of the activities, audited financial statements, and budget for Alberta Canola
•  voting on director elections (if required)
•  voting on resolutions

Resolutions to be presented at Alberta Canola’s AGM must be received no less than 10 business days prior to the AGM (by January 11, 2022) to allow for
background to be collected and resolutions to be prepared for presentation at the meeting.

Registering to Vote Online

Farmers in Alberta that have sold canola and paid a service charge on canola to Alberta Canola since August 1, 2019 are eligible canola growers and can register to vote at Alberta Canola’s Annual General Meetings.

Eligible canola growers can be individuals or represent a corporation, partnership, or organization. To ensure the integrity of the voting procedure, growers will need to register to vote. This will allow Alberta Canola to verify eligible voters, and enable our third-party voting provider to provide growers with a unique access code to allow them to vote.

Voter registration closes January 11, 2022. For more details and to register, please visit albertacanola.com/vote.

Getting from A to B to… Z in policy development and advocacy

By Karla Bergstrom,
Manager of Government & Industry Affairs

Alberta Canola works to create change on policy matters important to canola farmers. The Government and Industry Affairs Committee ensures farmer-focused input, guides and supports the organization to advance these changes, and promotes the interests of canola farmers at the local, provincial and national levels. This is no small feat for commissions with a small complement of staff; nor is it for the faint of heart considering the breadth, depth, and cyclical nature of the many issues that continuously challenge farmers and the farm groups that represent them.

Farming is one of the most noble and traditional industries dating back to the beginning of civilization and so are some of its challenges. Newer challenges of modern agriculture – stemming from global economic factors, climate change, investment, transportation, trade, technology, consumer demand, public trust and misinformation to name a few – are increasingly more complex. This is especially so these days because of social media.

Platforms like Twitter make it easy for users to ask, “What is <insert any farm organization> doing about blank?”, which often elicits a firestorm of opinions and sometimes calls for refunds. It’s not easy for Alberta Canola to respond about complex issues that we’ve been working on for days, weeks, months or years in 280 characters.

However, it is easy for your regional farmer director or staff members to respond to any questions or concerns via other means of communication as we have for over 30 years. In an attempt to make the policy development and advocacy process more transparent, the GIA section in our annual report provides insight into how Alberta Canola goes from A to B to…Z. The process to develop policy is not unlike making sausage without a recipe! The ingredient list that feeds into policy development is continually changing, and policy analysis is flavoured by a diversity of influences, uncertainty, and politics of the day. Policy wins are like achieving the coveted Blue Ribbon, but more often than not, success comes from mitigating negative outcomes from legislative or regulatory changes that could harm farming operations. This report will highlight some of the policy files that escalated in importance and urgency for Alberta Canola during the 2020-21 year based on evolving external pressures. View it at albertacanola.com/annualreport.

Rarely are policy files open and shut cases; policy development takes time and a lot of hurry up and wait. Commissions are in this for the long game with many calls, emails, and meetings with many people. We strategize internally with our directors in committee meetings, we reach out to other commissions, industry stakeholders and subject matter experts and then we refine and redraft key messages for backgrounders, letters, press releases, leave-behind documents, submissions and government consultations. Throughout all this, we loop back with our directors to ensure our efforts hit the mark. Only when final approvals are granted, do commissions pivot to extend communications externally to inform our farmer members and stakeholders.

Farmers represent less than 3% of the population, which correlates highly with our government representation. Unfortunately, this means fewer elected officials and public servants have ties to farms or understand the complexity of the agriculture industry. This makes it harder for commodity organizations to drive farmer priorities forward and agriculture is typically low on federal and provincial agendas. In order to progress, grower organizations have to work with the government of the day and react to align our messaging within this reality. This process is often a slow and frustrating grind that stalls or starts all over again when an election is called.

Relationships are key to many businesses. In an industry like agriculture, they are vital to amplify the collective voice of farmers. Alberta Canola collaborates with our national canola organizations, Team Alberta, and other farm organizations on broad-sector issues that impact our industry. This is because our members don’t just grow canola. Collaboration allows commissions to use limited resources more effectively and leverage checkoff dollars to maximize the benefits to farmers.

Team Alberta is a great example of this. Since 2015, Alberta Canola, Alberta Pulse Growers, and the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions have united on shared crop sector issues under the Team Alberta brand. We are stronger and more effective in moving the needle on policy files with provincial and federal governments when we work together. Because of this collaborative success, the founding four commissions initiated an expansion and invited other crop commissions to work with us to represent more of the crop sector under Team Alberta, so stay tuned. For a detailed list of our ongoing policy files and advocacy efforts, please visit teamalbertacrops.com.

A full account of all of Alberta Canola’s policy and advocacy work over the past year is available in our 2020-21 Annual Report. View it at albertacanola.com/annualreport.