Among the stories in our Nov. 12, 1992 issue was a report on United Grain Growers delegates approving the company’s end as a co-operative and to become a public company on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Manitoba Pool Elevators also held its annual meeting the previous week, and had reported profit of $10.7 million and allocation of $6.1 million to members.
Delegates were concerned about allocation of producer cars, which at the time were given priority over those allocated to grain companies. Speaking to the MPE meeting, CWB chief commissioner Lorne Hehn, a former UGG president who had been appointed by Agriculture Minister Charlie Mayer based on his pro-open-market stance, was now expressing some reservations about a “continental” barley market under which farmers could sell directly to the U.S. Hehn referred to it as “wanting to be married and single at the same time.”
Read Also
Farmer mental health support extended in Manitoba
The Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program is slated for $300,000 over the next two years for its farm mental health services
Manitoba Agriculture Minister Glen Findlay, now an appointed director of the deregulated CWB, expressed similar concerns. He said the system was working quite well, and dismissed a call for change from the Alberta government.
Manitoba beef producers had lost another processing plant with the bankruptcy of Western Beef in Beausejour, leaving farmers owed $370,000 and an unnamed creditor $700,000.
