Shipping and grain handling firm Upper Lakes Group of Toronto has hired ousted Canadian Wheat Board CEO Adrian Measner to head its grains group of companies.
Citing Measner’s public statements in favour of the CWB’s sales monopoly on Prairie wheat and barley, then-federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl fired him from his CWB post in December 2006. Measner was replaced on an interim basis by former CWB CEO Greg Arason.
The Upper Lakes Group’s grain handling holdings include:
- Winnipeg-based Mission Terminal, which since 1999 has run the former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool 15 port terminal at Thunder Bay, Ont., and has a handling agreement with the CWB;
- Trois Rivieres-based terminal companies Lake Superior Grain and Les Elevateurs des Trois Rivieres;
- Services Maritimes Laviolette, a Quebec company offering loading and unloading services to shippers; and
- Great Lakes Grain, which markets mainly U.S. grain at Indianapolis, Ind.
Read Also
Alberta Crop Report: Rains in the south, dryness in the north
Rain fell onto the southern half of Alberta last week, while hot and dry conditions persisted in the northern half, according to the province’s crop report released on July 18.
Measner’s appointment as CWB CEO, through a federal order in council, had included a standard proviso that would have otherwise limited his ability to work in the grain industry for 12 months after leaving (or being dismissed from) the CWB.
However, Measner said in an interview Friday, the federal ethics commissioner has granted him a waiver allowing him to take the Upper Lakes job two months early. He remains restricted until December in making any formal representations to the CWB.
Measner’s appointment as the Upper Lakes grains group’s president and CEO was announced at the same time as the appointment of former Mission Terminal president Bruce Hayles as chairman of the grains group.
