Lorne Hehn, remembered as a pragmatic grain industry leader through some of its most tumultuous times, died peacefully in Saskatoon Sept. 16 at age 79.
“Lorne Hehn was a thoughtful, honest man with a lot of integrity,” said Bob Roehle, who worked with Hehn during his tenure as chief commissioner of the Canadian Wheat Board. “He was a good man, a gentleman and a family man.”
Hehn studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. After graduating he returned to run the family farm. He married Beth Smoothy in 1962 and they had two children, Jeff and Pam.
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Hehn first became involved in farm policy in 1967 and served as a United Grain Growers director from 1970 until his election as president in 1981.
The farmer from Markinch, Sask. served as president of the farmer-owned co-operative grain company from 1981 until 1990 when then wheat board minister Charlie Mayer appointed him to the CWB. That was just as anti-monopoly sentiments were running high and protesters began running the Canada-U.S. border with their grain trucks.
Hehn said he took on the job despite a pay cut and more headaches because he was motivated to serve farmers.
Given that Mayer and UGG opposed the wheat board’s sales monopoly for western Canadian wheat and barley destined for export or domestic human consumption, Hehn’s appointment was viewed with suspicion by monopoly supporters. But their fears proved unfounded.
Hehn argued it gave farmers market power and the ability to sometimes extract premiums over competitors.
“My first challenge (as chief commissioner) was to show that I wasn’t there to destroy the place,” Hehn said in a 1999 interview. “I was there to do what was in the best interest of farmers and I would act accordingly.”
Hehn acknowledged in that interview that it took working at the CWB for a while to get a deeper understanding of the monopoly’s value.
“It was a wake-up call for me quite frankly,” Hehn said. “I did not have a full appreciation of the highly integrated approach that the board takes to marketing.
“If the pillars (of the wheat board), including the single desk and pooling, are weakened the wheat board won’t last long because it has nothing else to offer,” he said in 1999.
Hehn retired in January 1999 following changes to the Canadian Wheat Board Act that turned operational control over to a majority of 10 farmer-elected directors and five government-appointed directors. But its fate still rested with government.
The Harper government ended the wheat board’s 69-year-old monopoly August 2012. It turned the remaining CWB’s assets valued at $250.5 million over to G3 Global Grain Group, a joint venture firm majority owned by multinational, publicly traded Bunge and state-owned Saudi Agricultural Livestock Investment Company.
