OFA’s proposal to remove Policy Advisory Council tabled to 2024

The OFA board is proposing to change its Policy Advisory Council to a policy forum which will change how the board hears from its members outside of the annual meeting.

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In one of her last roles as president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), Peggy Brekveld introduced discussion on the organization’s proposal to remove the Policy Advisory Council (PAC) during the first day of the organization’s annual convention, held Nov. 21-22 in Toronto.

Debate on the proposal, along with a bylaw amendment proposed by the Middlesex Federation of Agriculture, dominated much of the meeting’s day one morning agenda, finally ending with a motion to table it for further discussion at the 2024 annual meeting.

Why it matters: The OFA is Ontario’s largest farmer membership organization.

The changes to the PAC are part of a group of changes the OFA is making to how it works, driven by new government rules on not-for-profit groups.

In October, the OFA board met to discuss changes to the bylaw, which outlines its governance, to be compliant with the Ontario Not for Profit Corporation Act (ONCA).

ONCA requires not-for-profit corporations previously governed under the Corporations Act to make changes to their incorporating and other documents in order to conform with the act. Corporations affected by this, such as the OFA, were given a three-year transition period from the date ONCA came into force, Oct. 19, 2021.

The OFA board, with guidance from its legal counsel, made the changes, approving bylaw 23-1 in October 2023. The OFA’s Letters Patent also needed to be amended, as these were first drafted in August 1956. 

“It is less of a change than a relocation of certain portions of our bylaws to our letters patent, to follow the structure required by ONCA,” Brekveld explained.

The OFA board then drafted bylaw 23-2, which included the ONCA compliance within 23-1, but also made new changes that included:

• Removal of Article 18, which outlines the Policy Advisory Council;
• Eliminattion of the position of “Councillor” including references to election and length of term;
• Replacing “Member Representatives” with “Delegates”, and
• Increasing from three to four the number of “Delegates” per fixed number of members residing in a region and per agricultural/commodity organization member.

PAC was initially established in 2007/2008 to quickly discuss policy issues. Brekveld said the OFA board had committed to review the Policy Advisory Council (PAC) two years ago and over that time period conducted delegate surveys, held meetings both virtually and in-person, reviewed the best practices of other commodity and agricultural organizations and had “many discussions, consulted with local county and national federation board members, and engaged with a consultant to put the results together to give us options on how to move forward.”

Two key points from meetings with delegates and others identified that there was a need and interest in more mentoring, training and leadership development for membership, and a need for a better way to communicate grassroots topics that will strengthen both the OFA and local federations, she said.

The OFA board proposed that forum-type meetings would better address those concerns than PAC. Brekveld explained to attendees that their “membership voice and vote at the AGM will not be impacted. At federation forums held throughout the year there will be one member designated per local federation designated by the local federation your connection in your area.”

She said the idea is to ensure that “those actively engaged in their local region and already recognized representatives are part of the forum.

“Local federations can send the right person for the conversations of the day and they can look at the what we’re going to be talking about and designate the person that would best fit that.”

Compared to PAC, the agenda could be “more fluid, allowing for discussions that are broader. It will be a smaller group, but one where every voice is heard.”

The proposed 23-2 bylaw, along with 23-1 and letters patent were sent to OFA membership prior to the annual meeting.

Concerned that the removal of PAC in 23-2 “eliminates significant opportunities for participation in OFA province-wide events by grassroots OFA Membership”, the Middlesex Federation of Agriculture proposed a special resolution to amend 23-2. 

The MFA’s resolution called for a revision of 23-2 to restructure PAC with a Resolutions Development Council, and that a “councillor” be defined as a member elected by the regional federation to be a member of the Resolutions Development Council. The purpose of this council is to aid the OFA and the regional federations in the process of resolution development and as a forum for networking, leadership training, and information sharing.

After nearly an hour of hearing from members who both supported and opposed the MFA’s amendment to 23-2, a vote on the amendment was taken, and it was not passed.

A motion was made from the floor to table voting on 23-2 until the OFA’s 2024 annual convention.

The final vote of the morning was on bylaw 23-1, which was passed.