The board of the Farm Products Marketing Council has been shaken up by the provincial government.
Provincial Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler has named a new chair and directors and named one of the existing board members vice-chair.
“The newly appointed chair, vice-chair and directors for the Manitoba Farm Products Marketing Council will serve an important role helping foster growth in a very exciting and innovative sector of agriculture in Manitoba,” said Eichler in a news release.
The board is responsible for overseeing the promotion, regulation and management of the production and marketing of farm products in Manitoba, as set out in The Farm Products Marketing Act.
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The new chair of the board is Ed Helwer, who is a retired farmer, owner of a farm supply business, and public servant at both the municipal and provincial level. He held positions of councillor and mayor for the Town of Teulon over separate periods of time from 1969 to 1988, then served as a member of the legislative assembly for the constituency of Gimli from 1988 to 2003. He farmed in the Netley area and sold the farm in 2012.
Norine Dohan is an existing director who has served on the board since June of 2011 and has been appointed vice-chair. She is a rancher and bookkeeper. She previously served on the board of the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation. Dohan is from the Ethelbert area.
Newly appointed directors are Lisa Dyck, Ronalee Janzen, Louise Lachance and Raymond Wytinck.
Dyck is owner of Cornell Crème Ltd., Manitoba’s first dairy producer/processor founded in 2012, and co-owner of Cornell Dairy Ltd. She is a director on the boards of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and Food & Beverage Manitoba.
Janzen shares in the operation of her family’s grain farm, while also devoting significant time to community volunteerism and farm organizations.
Lachance is secretary and treasurer for the family’s farm and corporation, Lachance Bros. Ltd. She and her husband have operated their farm for 40 years.
Wytinck has been the general manager of NorthStar Genetics since 2009, which supplies traited soybean seed to operations in Western Canada. He previously worked for Cargill for 13 years in a variety of management capacities.
Robert Muir, Garry Draper and John Sandborn had their terms expire and Erin Crampton has resigned from her appointment. The appointments of directors Ken Caldwell and Rick Wiens have been revoked.
