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PANEL TO REVIEW CWB DIRECTOR ELECTIONS

Ottawa, On, June 17, 2005 - The Government of Canada today announced the creation of a panel to review the electoral system of the Canadian Wheat Board.

"The Government of Canada is committed to strengthen the changes we introduced in 1998, reinforcing farmer control of the Canadian Wheat Board," said Reg Alcock, Minister Responsible for Canadian Wheat Board. "Improving the election procedures and voting lists, will both ensure that producer's interests are recognized and will enhance the validation of the elected farmers to the Board."

Minister Alcock appointed three respected farm leaders, one from each Prairie province, to serve on the CWB Election Review Panel: Cecilia Olver of Corning, Saskatchewan, a vice president with the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan; Greg Porozni of Vegreville, Alberta, a member of the Alberta Grain Commission and a director of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission; and David Rolfe of Elgin, Manitoba, President of the Keystone Agricultural Producers. Minister Alcock has also appointed Janice Baker, the former Chief Electoral Officer for Saskatchewan, as a special advisor to the panel.

The panel's broad terms of reference will include everything from voter eligibility to electoral boundaries to balloting. Over the course of the last four CWB elections, many farmers and farm organizations have requested improvements to the CWB electoral system.

This election review panel will consult producers, farm organizations and provincial governments, and has been mandated to report by October 2005. Proposed recommendations may therefore be implemented by the next CWB election, to be held in the fall of 2006.

There have been four elections held since the Government of Canada introduced amendments to the Canadian Wheat Board Act in 1998, giving producers the power to elect ten of the fifteen directors on the CWB's board and therefore putting the farmers in control of its grain marketing agency.

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For more information, please contact:

Lise Jolicoeur
Press Secretary
Office of the Honourable Reg Alcock
Ottawa
613-957-2666

Media Relations
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Ottawa
613-759-7972
866-345-7972

Backgrounder

David Rolfe currently farms near Elgin, Manitoba. He began his farming career in the United Kingdom before immigrating to Canada in 1975. He and his wife manage 1900 acres of grains, oilseeds and special crops, and in the past managed a 120 sow farrow/finish hog operation. Currently, he is the President of the Keystone Agriculture Producers and has served within the organization since 1995. He has previously been a Director of the Canada-Manitoba Farm Business Management Council and Canadian Pork Council.

Cecilia Olver has been farming since 1976, seed grower since 1980, cropping 3600 acres including operating a custom spraying business in Corning, Saskatchewan. She is currently the Vice President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, and a member of the Highway 48 Marketing Group and of the District 6 Agriculture Diversification and Development Board. She is also a member of the Federal Agri-Environmental Advisory Committee and on the Provincial Farm Stress Advisory Board.

Greg Porozni is a fourth generation farmer operating 3800 acres of grain, pulse, and oil seeds in Willingdon, Alberta. He is currently a member of the Alberta Grain Commission and a Director of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission. He has previously served as a member of the Alberta Agricultural Development Committee and a member of Agriculture Canada Brandon Research Centre Advisory Committee.

Janice Baker was the first appointed independent Chief Electoral Officer reporting directly to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Saskatchewan. As Chief Electoral Officer, she was responsible for the development and administration of the procedural, operational, administrative and financial electoral practices and processes under The Election Act, 1996. This includes operational and financial aspects of the Province's Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Provincial General Elections. She maintained a public relations program to raise political stakeholder and public awareness of important aspects of the Office's mandate. She hosted the 2002 conference of Canadian Election Officials and participated in deliberations focused on the legitimacy of representative government and public confidence in government institutions and processes.