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Winter
2017
Grains
West
8
BY LEE HART
THE
FARMGATE
BUSINESSASUSUAL
MINORCHANGES FORWHEATANDBARLEYGROWERS
AS TRANSITIONAL CHECK-OFFCOMES TOANEND
ALBERTA WHEAT AND BARLEY
growers will be taking full control of how
their check-o dollars are spent next year
as the industry moves to a system where
each provincial commodity commission
collects its own check-o funds.
It is part of a planned administrative
move completing a transition following
the end of the Canadian Wheat Board
(CWB) in 2012. The actual check-o
amount collected today will change, as the
new system kicks into gear with the new
crop year beginning August 2017.
The new system not only gives each
commission full responsibility for check-
o funds, but also forces it to be even
more accountable for how those check-o
dollars are spent. However, a major shift
in check-o dollar distribution is not
expected. Funds will continue to be used
primarily for ongoing initiatives in variety
and agronomic research and development,
technology transfer, and market and
policy development. The biggest changes
are that it will be a single check-o entry
that appears on cash purchase tickets, the
check-o will go directly to the respective
crop commissions—the Alberta Wheat
Commission (AWC) or Alberta Barley—
and each commission will be responsible
and accountable for the distribution of all
funds collected.
Check-o dollars were collected and
distributed by the CWB during its long
era of single-desk marketing. When the
CWB was eliminated in 2012, the federal
government implemented a transitional
two-tier check-o system. The Western
Canadian Deduction (WCD) represented
the federal portion of the check-o —48
cents per tonne for wheat Prairie-wide;
56 cents per tonne for barley in B.C., Sas-
katchewan and Manitoba; and four cents
per tonne for barley in Alberta. The cash
purchase ticket showed one entry for the
federal check-o and a second entry for
the commission check-o .
As a result, in the 2016/17 crop year,
the Alberta check-o for wheat stood
at 48 cents per tonne for the WCD and
70 cents per tonne to AWC, for a total
$1.18 per tonne. For barley, it stood at
four cents for the WCD and $1 per tonne
to Alberta Barley, for a total $1.04 per
tonne. AWC is proposing to implement
a lower single check-o of $1.09 per
tonne starting in August 2017. Alberta
Barley proposed to increase its check-o
to $1.20 per tonne. The proposal was
approved at Alberta Barley’s annual
general meeting and will be implemented
in August.
The five-year WCD transition period
provided growers in each province with
time to establish their own commodity
commissions to handle collection and
distribution of check-o dollars. Alberta
Barley had been in place prior to the end
of the CWB, and AWC was established
on the same day the CWB was o cially
eliminated. Now Saskatchewan and Man-
itoba also have fully operational provincial
commissions representing both crops.
Since Alberta Barley was already
operational when the CWB ended, it also
took on the interim administrative role
of collecting and distributing the federal
(WCD) portion of the check-o on behalf
of all western provinces. That job will be
handed to the respective provincial crop
commissions in August.
Outgoing Alberta Barley chair Mike
Ammeter said the transition to a single
check-o system collected by the com-
mission is one of those situations “where
nothing changes, yet everything changes.”
“The dollar figure really doesn’t change,
but now we as a commission are directly
responsible to farmers for how that money
is used,” said Ammeter, who farms near
Sylvan Lake. “It brings the responsibility
and accountability back to the organiza-
tion that represents farmers.”
Ammeter said there has been a good
working relationship for many years
between farmers and the organizations
supported by the WCD, such as the Cana-
dian International Grains Institute, the
Western Grains Research Foundation and
the Canadian Malting Barley Technical
Centre, so the changes to check-o s
shouldn’t disrupt research funding.
“We have a very good relationship
with these organizations and I believe
our support for their research, varietal
development and other technical sup-
port will continue. We have a very good
relationship with all our research and
development partners,” said Ammeter.
“I believe it is important to let producers
know that a change is happening, and why
it is happening, but in some respects it is
also business as usual.”
AWC chair Kevin Auch has similar
thoughts on the check-o changes. “I
believe the transition is just a natural fit,
since we as a commission are collecting
money from farmers so we are accounta-
ble to those farmers and have responsibil-
ity for how the money is distributed,” said
Auch, who farms near Carmangay. “I don’t
see any major changes in the way things
are handled, but it only makes sense that
the organization that is collecting money
from wheat farmers should be responsible
to those wheat farmers as well.”