The Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) wants laws to ensure farmers retain ownership of the products they deliver until paid.
When farmers unload cattle at an auction market they lose ownership even though they haven t been paid, Minto farmer Bill Campbell said during KAP s general council meeting Oct. 27.
Until I receive compensation I should be the owner of these cattle and other commodities so if there is a default I have security and I have ownership, he said.
To that end Campbell moved a resolution calling on KAP to lobby the federal and provincial governments to review property laws to ensure farmers are the first creditor to be paid in the event of default or bankruptcy of a purchasing agent and ensure financial institutions and other creditors can not file a proof-of-claim form without proving farmers have been paid.
Gerald Ballegeer, owner of G&M Trucking, filed for bankruptcy protection in late February, and reportedly left a number of ranchers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan with up to $2 million in losses.
Cattle producers aren t the only ones at risk, Campbell said.
Grain farmers could encounter similar problems following the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board.
You have a semi pull into your yard and take a load of wheat somewhere and you don t receive payment for it that will be new territory that grain farmers have not entered into before, he said.
KAP delegates voted strongly in favour of the resolution.
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