Agricultural Service Boards play an important role in informing the Alberta government about issues.

Corey Beck is the Chair of the Agricultural Service Board Committee and a Councillor with the County of Grande Prairie.

He says their organization touches all corners of the province allowing them to bring local issues to the attention of the agriculture minister and ministry.

“That information allows us to hear what is going on in different regions and the challenges they have and be able to inform the minister and ministry on what is going on in Alberta,” Beck said.

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Beck says they see many of the issues that agriculture faces on a daily basis.

“Agriculture is faced by many challenges and it has been faced by many challenges for the 75-years that we have been a part of it and there will continue to be challenges.

He adds they try to be nimble and respond to those things.

“The markets are always a very big part, we don’t play as big as a role in the markets, but we feed that information to the ministry.”

He says part of that is sharing feedback on the budgets.

“The new budgets and how the ministry is going to handle things are always going to be challenges and we can grow through that as partners with the province.”

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He says their annual gathering, which took place in January in Banff allows them to set priorities, which they then take to the province.

“It is important to us because this is the one time of year that we gather feedback from our members through the resolution process, make the decisions on the floor through the resolution process on what we are going to inform the minister of what is going on in agriculture as ASB sees it.”