Gill shifts to greenhouses

BC Blueberry Council executive director Anju Gill has accepted a staff position at the BC Greenhouse Growers Association (BCGGA).

While the role has yet to be fully defined, Gill will be making the move in August as the greenhouse association strengthens its staff resources in the face of an ambitious work plan that includes the prospect of a new marketing commission to oversee for the sector independent of the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission.

“As a board of directors, we’ve made the decision to add an extra person to our staff,” BCGGA president Armand Vander Meulen told growers at the association’s annual meeting in Surrey on June 25. “She will be adding to our staff as we try to service the needs of the growers association even more.”

The BC Blueberry Council has yet to name Gill’s successor.

Gill joined the blueberry council in 2017 following 12 years in public relations and as executive assistant to Conservative MP Ed Fast among other roles in the political sphere.

Gill came to the council with a vision to provide enhanced grower support that would support the sector’s growth and competitive edge domestically as well as internationally.

The greenhouse association first raised the idea of a separate marketing commission last year. A study accounting firm MNP LLP presented in a townhall meeting following the business proceedings outlined the issues a new regulatory body could address. It sets the stage for a survey of the sector’s 60-plus growers later this month regarding the idea, and the feedback will lay the groundwork for a business case for the commission.

Any proposal for a new regulatory body would need to go to a vote of growers as well as receive the blessing of the BC Farm Industry Review Board, which oversees orderly marketing in BC under the province’s Natural Products Marketing Act.

With files from Ronda Payne