CWB Elections and Plebicite

[AdamSmith]

So, my wife gets this letter from MNP who obviously are doing the cwb director elections this year, which among other things informed her of the following:

Actual producers and interested parties with no 2005/2006 or 2006/2007 deliveries to the CWB will not be automatically included. This means you.

She delivered a whole whack of barley as well as canola in 2005 and 2006, she had a permit book because she had malt accepted, but later rejected (after it had a birthday in the bin)so she delivered it non board.

Yeah I think Strahl made the right decision on the voters list, but this example shows that it needs to be all grain deliveries into the system (board and non board) that should be the qualifiing standard, not just cwb deliveries. And Yes I know about the Statutory Declaration.

And another reason why I can't support a plebicite.

[charliep]

Just curious if most farm husbands and wifes maintain separate permit books? I a life partner isn't carrying a permit book, can they qualify for the CWB vote using a Statuatory Declaration?

[charliep]

This does have me curious. So I went to the CWBelection and found the following definition of voter eligibility.

The eligibility to vote in the 2006 election is restricted to individuals who meet the following criteria:

"Voters must be actual producers or interested parties (as defined by the CWB Act).
Voters must be registered in one of districts 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9
Voters must have attained the age of 18 years as of the last day of the election period (December 1st, 2006). If an individual is under 18 years of age they may designate someone else named in the permit book eligible to vote on their behalf.
A producer (as defined by the Act), may only vote once in an election.
A producer who produces grain in more than one electoral district will already be assigned to a voting district – usually based on default parameters, but if such a producer wishes to change voting districts, he/she must complete a District Transfer Request, and apply for such change to the Election Co-ordinator. If a producer previously elected to move from one district to another, that producer may NOT change districts again"

So not answer here - have to go to the act. Two definitions.

“actual producer” means a producer actually engaged in the production of grain;

“producer” includes, as well as an actual producer, any person entitled, as landlord, vendor or mortgagee, to the grain grown by an actual producer or to any share therein

Will stop here. May be useful to dust off your permit to see who all is named and from there, can others quality to vote in the current CWB election (assuming you live in an odd numbered district) using a statuatory declaration.

[charliep]

An even more thing is what if the number of people voting using statuatory declarations to vote represents a fairly high percentage of the voter turn out. Hasn't happened in the past but it will be curious in the coming year.

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie;

On the Stat. Declaration for 2004, Section 3 was "AND" where is now is "OR".

THis allows present growers who have permit books... with land listed on them; but are not on the voters list the right to a Statutory Declaration.

It is much better than 2004.

THis will allow many more people the opportunity to fill out the form, and vote.

[charliep]

Sorry for taking your thread another way AdamSmith but I have to ask another dumb question.

Tom4cwb - How are voting privileges for shareholders in farm companies handled? Are shareholders in companies (could hold preferred or common shares) treated differently than a crop share landlord?

[rodb]

Stuart Wells was bemoaning the fact that he had to fill in a statutory dec. as he obviously had not filled out a permit book or delivered wheat or barley to the CWB. How can a good NFU member not supported the CWB in the last two years?

[Incognito]

Stewart Wells has been President of Canada’s National Farmers Union since 2001. He was born and raised on a third-generation family farm near Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada, and studied Agricultural Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. A delegate to the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool – a farmer-owned grain collection co-operative – in the early 1990s, he is currently serving on Canada’s Agriculture Trade Negotiations Consultations Group. He has also served on the Board of the NFU’s Farmer-to-Farmer Trade Project – designed to foster trade links between Canadian and Mexican farm organisations and farmers.

Stewart and his wife operate a 3,500 acre (1,400 Hectare) organic farm where they grow a wide variety of grains, pulse crops, and oilseeds.

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

If individual shareholders are entitled to sell actual grain... in their OWN name... they would be entitled to vote.

Otherwise the unit as a whole is considered to be an "Actual Producer" in which individual partners and shareholders would not have the right to vote... in Director Elections being held now.

[TOM4CWB]

Incognito;

My bet is that these folks have multiple names in the permit book... which would not be normally used... hence were not used for 05 or 06 crops.

THis issue of who votes is a mine field... but one the NFU believed they had a handle on... they all like to vote early... and often!

[charliep]

Don't like/want to be a lawyer but am still confused. The definition from the act is someone who produces grain which from my definition implys invests in costs and takes risk.

The definition from the election seems to be more who shows up on a permit book because of the accident/planning at the time it was filled out. That would create substantially different results eg. a husband/wife who are a partnership or joint venture would get 2 votes. The husband/wife (and perhaps others) who have equity/ownership in a corporation but only show one name on the permit book would only get one vote.

Given the first question in number 3, it would also appear easy to get a vote if you do not have a permit book but if your permit book was not filled out properly (listed the land already with names missing), then you are hooped.