Western Canada’s dairy associations continue to grow closer, with this week’s announcement that the BC Milk Marketing Board and BC Dairy Association will move in together next summer.
“The two boards are taking steps to function together under a single strategy, and over the next 12 months operations will be coming together to create a new shared office space in Langley,” the board told producers this week. “While the organizations will be working more closely, and sharing an office beginning in the summer of 2024, they remain independent organizations.”
BC is the last province in Western Canada with a dairy association separate from the provincial milk board. Both associations have representation within the Western Milk Pool, which is working to harmonize operations of the five dairy organizations in Western Canada under a single governance structure.
The closer ties between BC Milk and BC Dairy reflects this.
“BC Dairy and BC Milk are moving forward with plans to bring our organizations closer together to better serve BC dairy producers and other industry partners including dairy processors as part of the Western Milk Pool,” BC Milk said.
The ongoing independence of the two BC dairy organizations makes it unlikely that jobs will be lost at either organization as part of the new partnership. Both organizations will also retain their representation on the WMP board, where BC Dairy has one representative (Holger Schwichtenberg) and BC Milk has two representatives (Janice Comeau and Jeremy Wiebe).
The organizations declined further comment on the closer relationship, their continued independence or the prospect of staffing changes.
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