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Nurseries seek fresh blood
by PETER MITHAM
VANCOUVER – It’s a bind familiar to many membership- based trade associations as the Baby Boom generation ages: older members and fewer volunteers. With the worst of its financial troubles behind it and membership stable at 422, the BC Landscape and Nursery Association is hoping new initiatives will help bring fresh blood into its membership and keep the sector innovative.
“We’re always looking for new, exciting blood. Maybe blood like we brought to the table 20 years ago,” said the association’s outgoing chair, Jeff Foley, addressing the association’s annual general meeting in Vancouver on December 1.
Association members held a strategy meeting earlier in the day that discussed issues confronting the association, and many of the potential answers resurfaced during the annual meeting.
A number of immediate initiatives were discussed by chief operating officer Hedy Dyck, who has been working to develop training programs and raise the profile of the industry as a viable career choice.
Rather than simply be an association of members, she said the association is seeking to serve members.
Training and education programs are integral to the association’s mission, Dyck said. She told the meeting that two programs
announced in early December would help address labour issues.
These include the BC Agriculture-Horticulture Sector Labour Market Partnership, undertaken in partnership with the BC Agriculture Council, and the BC Landscape-Horticulture Labour Market Partnership. The projects are funded with $81,000 of provincial money.
“We’re having huge issues in the industry,” she said. “This has a huge amount of potential and it requires zero dollars on BCLNA’s part.” Gord Mathies, the association’s growers’ representative, said labour – particularly the demand for skilled workers – will be a growing issue in the coming years. Unskilled labour is less of an issue, thanks largely to the greater skills demanded of producers.
Speaking at the December announcement, Foley said the partnerships would help
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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JANUARY 2017
A garden park may be home to a centre of excellence. SCARLET BLACK/DART’S HILL PHOTO
connect the industry with workers, and workers with skills.
"We are pleased to receive this funding to find workers and identify the skills they need to find meaningful work,” he said.
Reflecting concerns around attracting new BCLNA members, participants in the annual meeting voted against a tightening of rules governing student membership.
A special resolution sought to limit student membership to those enrolled in
horticulture programs in order to sidestep abuses of the membership category. However, members at the meeting pushed back, pointing out that it was in the association’s interests to keep
the door open to younger members.
The resolution passed following an amendment that underscored the board’s discretion with respect to student membership.
Dart’s Hill
The association’s biggest project, however, is still in the planning stages.
Years of planning for the long-term future of the Dart’s Hill property at 16th Avenue and 168 Street in Surrey has culminated in a vision for the 20-acre site as the home of a potential centre of excellence in horticulture and landscaping. South Surrey Garden Club members already use the site and a training centre would further enhance the public amenity the site
provides.
Current estimates peg the cost of the project, which would include office space for the association, at $6.5 million.
While this is beyond the means of the BCLNA, discussions with Surrey city staff suggest that a centre of excellence could garner funding from senior levels of government.
Overseeing the affairs of the association through 2017 are Len Smit, chair; Bill Hardy, first vice-chair; Craig Stewart, second vice-chair; and Garfield Marshall, treasurer. Steve Folkerts is the new growers’ representative and Michael Mills will represent retailers, while Heike Stippler will continue as representative for landscapers.
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