Wheat board rejects audit bid

Monday, March 3, 2008

by MARY BAXTER

"It almost failed unanimously," says board chair Alan Kerkhof, who noted only four or five of about 100 attending the meeting voted in favour of the resolution.

Kerkhof says too many uncertainties are what ultimately defeated the idea. He raised questions such as how much would it cost, who would pay and "who would you get to do it."

There was also a sense that any further action in terms of calling for audits should wait until the results of an audit of Agricorp, currently under way, are released, he adds.

Kerkhof says the number of delegates unwilling to support the resolution did come as a surprise; there were a few other resolutions during the meeting where votes had to be counted because the outcome was so close.

The loss of the resolution may well have an impact on the push to call for the audit, he says, predicting it will ultimately dissipate.

Last year the province called for an audit of the crown corporation following a widespread outcry from the farm community concerning the handling of crop insurance and the administration of payments under the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program.

Since that time, however, several within the industry who have recommended not only Farm Products be audited but also the entire Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Provincial Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky says she doesn't anticipate receiving the results of the Agricorp audit from the Ontario Auditor General until sometime later in the spring.

She says she asked the auditor, Jim McCarter, for a "rather wide range of considerations" concerning what needed to be changed and what needed to be improved.

Noting six other provinces rely directly on the federal government to administer the risk management program under the agriculture policy framework, "would Ontario farmers be better served if another agency managed that?" was another question she asked McCarter to consider.

While McCarter did say he would accommodate her request for an audit, "he made it clear that it may be the case that if something else comes to him of a pressing nature that they may have to -- not do it but that it may delay the release."

Dombrowsky made the comments following a presentation at the joint corn, soy, wheat and coloured bean producers conference. BF