BC FIRB challenges WMP plans

BC FIRB is challenging BC’s path forward with the Western Milk Pool.

Of primary concern is a plan for the BC Milk Marketing Board and the BC Dairy Association to share resources pursuant to memoranda of understanding submitted to BC FIRB last fall.

“We have concluded that the proposed MOU between the BCDA and the BCMMB is inconsistent with the legislative scheme in British Columbia and the rules of procedural fairness, and we direct the BCMMB not to sign it,” BC FIRB chair Peter Donkers writes in a May 1 letter to BC Milk chair Janice Comeau, posted on the BC FIRB site.

Unlike in the other three Western provinces, the regulatory and advocacy bodies for milk are by law separate, BC FIRB notes. Combining the two creates a conflict of interest, especially given the recent hiring of Leah Sheffield to serve as executive director of both organizations, which are set to move into shared office space this summer.

“The fiduciary duty owed to both organizations makes it impossible for a reasonably informed member of the public to determine whether the executive director is making decisions or providing advice with a view to benefiting the industry interests represented by the BCDA, or in furtherance of sound marketing policy in the public interest for the BCMMB,” Donkers notes in the letter.

Given the need to assure the public that marketing decisions are not beholden to producer interests, BC FIRB has directed the two dairy organizations to pause their integration efforts, disclose any that have taken place to date and respond to its letter by May 28 with responses to 15 questions posed in an appendix to the letter.

These include submitting any analyses done showing that the transformation initiative playing out among the Western dairy organizations is “consistent with orderly marketing and sound marketing policy in British Columbia.”

BC Milk declined comment on the letter but discussions at producer meetings following the announcement of the harmonization of operations within the Western Milk Pool have noted the need for provincial sign-off on the initiative.