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4 THE RURAL VOICE
FEEDBACK
THE GRENVILLE RESOLUTION: REPLY TO BRUCE COUNTY
This letter is in reply to Bruce
County's "Opinion" in the county
newsletter section of April's Rural
Voice.
I do not intend to debate further
the so-called "Grenville" resolution,
but I would like to clear up some mis-
statements that I have heard some
Bruce County representatives make in
the past and which are again stated in
the "Opinion."
Firstly, decisions that were made
by the Ontario Pork Producers Mar-
keting Board as a position on the said
resolution were not made by the exec-
utive of the OPPMB. They were
formed from resolutions of county
pork producer annual meetings across
Ontario. After much debate at these
grassroots meetings, some 13 resolu-
tions were sent for consideration to the
1987 OPPMB annual meeting. Of
these 13 resolutions on the Grenville
resolution, only one fully supported
the OFA's stand.
The resolutions were again fully
debated pro and con by the 250 coun-
cilmen. After this debate, resolutions
were passed instructing the OPPMB to
seek withdrawal of the Grenville reso-
lution and, if no satisfactory agree-
ment could be reached, to withdraw
our membership in the OFA.
The OPPMB executive did meet
with the OFA executive to explore the
possibility of meeting the pork pro-
ducers' wishes, but to no avail.
The executive committee of the
OPPMB didn't have the power to act
on its own in withdrawing from the
OFA. The executive committee can
only make recommendations to the
full board and a motion must then
have a majority to pass.
In January '88, an OPPMB motion
to withdraw was tabled till a further
meeting with the OFA could be held.
After the OFA executive met with the
OPPMB, an OFA general meeting
passed by a fair majority a motion to
exclude pork from the Grenville
resolution.
The statement about the grassroots
producers not having their say is un-
true. Just because most producers
didn't happen to agree with Bruce
County's stand doesn't mean that the
grassroots hasn't been heard. On the
contrary, the debate covered the issue
well and after a decision was made by
a majority of producer representatives
it would have been irresponsible for
the OPPMB to disregard their wishes.
In closing, let me state that the
OPPMB is a strong supporter of the
OFA as a general farm organization
and I'm sure we will work together on
issues of mutual concern in the future
as we have in the past.°
Glynn Waterton
OPPMB director
R. R. 1, Annan
FARM DEBT REVIEW: A PANEL MEMBER REPLIES
I have been receiving The Rural
Voice for a number of years now and I
must say that I do enjoy your maga-
zine very much.
Although I do not always agree
with all the statements some of the
'regular contributors may make from
time to time, I do consider them as one
man's (woman's) opinion, and respect
them as such.
However, I do take exception to a
statement made by Gisele Ireland in
her column in the March '88 issue.
I usually enjoy the humorous way
in which she depicts the ups and
downs of farm life, but I do not like
the way she talks about the Farm Debt
Review panel members.
I have served on a number of
(cont'd)