A merger between Pineland and Lake Country Co-ops (based out of Prince Albert) would benefit members and staff, said Pineland representatives at an informational meeting on January 9 at the Nipawin Evergreen Centre.

The largest drawback would be a loss of independence in governance, said Morley Doerksen, chair of the Pineland Board of Directors. He and Tim Keller, who has been acting as general manager of both Pineland and Lake Country for the last two years, made multiple assurances to the crowd of about 75 members at the meeting no jobs would be lost in Nipawin.

“It would have been a stopper for us,” said Doerksen. The Pineland board struggled to find a good general manager for a while before signing a one year agreement with Lake Country in 2017 to share Keller’s position. That worked well enough that they extended it for another year before being approached in May 2019 by Lake Country to combine the two Co-ops.

“Our commitment to this is zero job losses,” Keller said.

Both Pineland and Lake Country use a delegate voting system (Pineland alone has 8,000 members and Lake Country is much larger). In order for the merger to proceed from Pineland’s end, two-thirds of those delegates would have to be in favour.

Lake Country’s delegates would also have to approve the amalgamation.

“What we’re proposing is a good deal for the members,” Doerksen said. “We’re going to lose some democratic control but you can’t win on every front.”

Two positions would be added to the board that Lake Country has for the creation of an entirely new Co-op. Once the initial two-year and three-year respective terms expired, they would be involved in the regular voting procedure.

Pineland would also receive six delegates from the existing delegate body, three from Nipawin and area and three from Choiceland and area.

For members, being part of a much larger Co-op can have several tangible benefits, the crowd heard.

They would be able to use their Co-op number at a larger number of locations, ranging from multiple stores in Prince Albert to Wakaw or Smeaton.

Members would keep their existing Pineland Co-op number, but a single digit would be added to all of them to ensure there is no duplication with other numbers.

No member equity would be lost in the merger.

Equity payouts happen at age 70 with Pineland whereas Lake Country starts staggered payouts at age 65, giving 20 per cent a year until the member turns 70. A merger would see eligible Pineland members get their payouts earlier.

Since the combined Co-op would have more purchasing power, there would be bigger benefits to the organization in areas like agro services with larger rebates coming from chemical companies. Those rebates can lower the input costs for producers and help pay for capital projects or be returned as dividends to the members.

For staff, 93 per cent of Pineland’s 200 employees would see an immediate wage increase of one to six per cent to bring them to the same scale as Lake Country offers. The other seven percent would remain at their current rate and no reductions would happen.

Pineland staff are not unionized whereas 50 per cent of Lake Country staff are unionized. There would be no requirement for Pineland staff to join a union, said Tammy Nilson, with Pineland’s senior management team.

For the people at the meeting, however, loss of autonomy was something to worry about and several said that while no jobs would be lost now, there would be less say for Nipawin if it was a risk in the future.

John Shenher, former head of the Diamond North Credit Union based in Nipawin but speaking as a member, said the board is capable of handling the minute details of a merger.

“I trust our board to work through all of that,” he said. “If locations close, it’s because members aren’t supporting it anymore. But I would like to see it be a member vote.”

He was one of multiple people to propose a referendum-style vote over allowing the delegates to decide.

Doerksen said that the Pineland board has consulted their bylaws and legal counsel and determined that while there is no stopping a member vote, the results would be a recommendation and not binding on the board.

The next board meeting is later this month but no meeting date to vote on the merger has been set as yet.

The board wanted to consult with members first, it said, which it did in Choiceland on December 9 and at the Nipawin food store on December 11 and 12, at the Nipawin Home Centre on December 18 and 19 and with the January 9 member meeting.

Doerksen said that a decision not to amalgamate could be re-visited in the future but a yes vote would not be able to be changed.

The current Pineland board of directors includes: Morley Doerksen, Kevin Lockwood, Arlie Olson, Morris Nycholat, Dona Hoppe, Betty Rowlett and Lori Burka.

Delegates are: Kevin Adrian, Greg Youzwa, Wendell Head, Spenser Staffen, Carson Shymanski, Marcel Head, Zach Youzwa, Aaron Baxter and Bonnie Seerey.