Ken McBride, President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskat-chewan (APAS) has announced the organization’s withdrawal from a national coalition of farm groups pressing for a plebiscite on proposed changes to the Canadian Wheat Board.

McBride stated that the withdrawal was due to APAS’ traditional neutrality on the issue of wheat and barley marketing.

“The CWB debate is a contentious issue amongst farmers. To do our job of properly serving Sask-atchewan producers, we cannot risk being perceived as picking one or another side in this debate. APAS represents a broad spectrum of producers across the province. Only a united front of producers succeeds in getting governments and the general public to pay attention to all of the urgent issues affecting agriculture”, says McBride.

McBride emphasized that APAS position on a plebiscite has not changed.

“We continue to maintain that the future of the Canadian Wheat Board should be decided by farmers. Our members voted in support of that position at our mid-term meeting in July.

“Our original membership in the coalition was intended only to stand by our members’ demand for a plebiscite. Our members have told us that they were not comfortable with us being publicly perceived as taking a position on the marketing issue and, again, that was never our intention. “Through our announcement today, we are responding to our members and correcting any misinterpretation that may have occurred,” McBride said.