Proposed ABP Plan and Bylaw Amendments

In the article entitled Commission Mechanics: How ABP Leverages Producer Dollars to Foster a Successful Alberta Beef Industry (ABP Magazine, Volume 4 Issue 3), Emma Cross explained that Alberta Beef Producers is a commission established under the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act and how ABP, as a commission, differs from other beef cattle organizations that represent members.

The defining feature of ABP, as a commission, is that it works on behalf of all Alberta cattle producers an, through its governing documents is accountable to all cattle producers in Alberta and to the Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council (Marketing Council), which oversees the operations of all the marketing boards and commissions.

By way of recap, ABP’s governing documents, in order of supremacy, are:

• the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act;
• Marketing Council’s policies, rules and regulations governing boards and commissions;
• the Alberta Beef Producers Plan Regulation;
• the Alberta Beef Producers Authorization Regulation;
• the Alberta Beef Producers Commission Regulation; and
• the Alberta Beef Producers Bylaws.

The Plan and Authorization Regulations are ministerial regulations. The Commission Regulation is made by ABP and approved by the Marketing Council. All three regulations are subject to the government’s regulatory review and approval process.

From 1969, when ABP was established, until the fall of 2009, ABP’s election process and authority was solely governed by its Plan Regulation, which underwent regular reviews and amendments between 1969 and 2008. As noted in the previous article, in 2009, ABP became the first and only board or commission to move some of the provisions in its Plan Regulation to Bylaws and be governed by both a Plan Regulation and Bylaws. The other boards and commissions did not develop bylaws until after the Act was amended in 2020.

In 2009, the ABP Plan Regulation was significantly reduced in size and content. Only those provisions required by the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act and Marketing Council were retained in the Plan Regulation. The Bylaws enacted in 2009, being the first of its kind, have undergone a series of amendments since then to better reflet the needs of the producers, delegates, and the commission.

A copy of the current ABP Plan Regulation, Commission Regulation, and Bylaws can be found on the ABP Website on the “About Us” page.

Changes to the plan regulation

The proposed amendment to the ABP Plan Regulation and Bylaws will further streamline the ABP Plan Regulation. ABP and Marketing Council have identified the sections that can be moved from the Plan Regulation to the Bylaws. Following feedback from producers and approval by the delegates at the annual delegate meeting, the proposed amendments will be presented to the Marketing Council and the Minister for their respective approval before coming into effect.

The following sections from the ABP Plan Regulation are proposed to be moved to the ABP Bylaws:

Except for section 11, the wording from the Plan Regulation has been incorporated verbatim into the Bylaws. For section 11, unlike the Plan, the bylaws do not require notice of meetings via newspapers circulating in the zones.

In addition, changes to the Plan Regulation will be:

An unofficial draft of the Plan Regulation showing the proposed deletions and additions is available on the “About us” page of the ABP Website.

Changes to the ABP Bylaws

As mentioned earlier, with one exception, the wording from the Plan Regulation has been incorporated verbatim into the Bylaws. Adding these new provisions into the Bylaws has resulted in some re-organization of the Bylaws to accommodate the additional clauses. Any definitions in the Plan that were also in the Bylaws have been removed from the Bylaws.

In reviewing the Bylaws to add the provisions from the Plan Regulation, a few housekeeping edits were made to clarify the current wording and reflect current practices, but these are not substantive in nature.

A draft of the amended Bylaws showing the proposed additions and edits is available on the “About Us” page of the ABP Website. The Marketing Commission Regulation is also available on the ABP Website and is open for comment by producers and delegates.

Results

As noted in the previous article, the proposed changes will create a nimbler, less bureaucratic regulatory framework for ABP. No substantive changes are being proposed at this time. Moving these governance-related provisions from the ABP Plan Regulation to the Bylaws will give ABP greater flexibility in managing future changes with appropriate oversight of Council. This new framework also frees the Minister to focus on more substantive policy and regulatory matters affecting ABP and and other agricultural commodities.

Producer and Delegate Meetings

The proposed changes to the ABP Plan Regulation and ABP Bylaws will be one of the topics for discussion at the Producer Meetings in February 2025. Any feedback from those meetings will be considered in the draft that is put to the delegates for a vote at the 2025 annual delegates meeting.

ABP invites producers and key stakeholders to review the draft amended Plan Regulation and Bylaws and submit any comments and suggestions to Brad Dubeau, ABP, by email at bradd@albertabeef.org or bring them to the 2025 Producer Meetings, where ABP will lead discussions on the details of these changes.

This article was first published in Volume 4 Issue 4 of ABP Magazine (December 2024). Watch for more digital content from the magazine on ABP Daily.