The voting period remains open to fill spots on the SaskOilseeds Board of Directors.

Five people are vying for four spots on the Board — David Altrogge from Saint Benedict, Patricia Lung from Lake Lenore, Thomas MacKenzie from Zehner, Codie Nagy from Ogema, and Dean Roberts from Coleville. These candidates have different farming backgrounds from grain-only, to mixed, to dairy operations, as well as experience on several boards over the years.

This also comes as Keith Fournier has served the maximum eight years as Director and will officially step down from the Board after the SaskOilseeds AGM on January 15th.

Executive Director of SaskOilseed Tracy Broughton says registered levy payers, so both canola and flax producers, can vote who they’d like to be on the board by going online or by mail upon request. “So levy payers of flax and canola would have received a package in the mail at the end of October-early November that would of had an information card with a unique identifier and they could go onto oilseedsvote.com and enter in that unique identifier and vote online,” she said.

She noted this is about the fourth election that electronic voting has been made available to members. “Most of the kinks have been worked out and it seems to be increasing voter participation over the course of that time period,” Broughton said. “The biggest thing is it reduces spoiled ballots because everything on the electronic system allows you to make sure that its compliant with our regulations.”

Registered producers have until November 29 at Noon Central Standard Time to vote. Results will be announced sometime next month. For a look at each candidate’s biography and to hear their perspective on why they’re running, visit the SaskCanola website.