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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2017


BC Tree Fruit election may prompt legal action New board plans to move forward in spite of questions about vote tabulation


by RONDA PAYNE PEACHLAND – Legal action


may be the next step in a close-run election for BC Tree Fruits Co-operative (BCTF) director positions. Two individuals involved in the election have expressed concerns about the vote- counting process, and those concerns had not been resolved by the time this issue went to press. The situation has left one individual feeling that legal options are the only recourse. Three-year terms ensure


the co-op’s 10-person board sees a certain amount of turnover at annual elections. The 2017 AGM on October 25 in Peachland had four positions open; from these, two incumbents stayed on the board and two new members joined the fold out of the seven individuals who ran.


One of the incumbents,


Karmjit Gill, was not successful in securing a seat on the board and says there was a lack of scrutiny of the votes in the election. He says the ballot-counting machines failed and is surprised that he did not obtain a director’s position in what he described as a very close election. “I don’t know what happened over there,” notes Gill. “When the election is too close, they should do recounting.” Another party involved in


the election, who asked not to be named, states that it’s a very serious matter and while BCTF CEO Stan Swales, other election scrutineers and the returning officer have all been contacted, there has been no response. “We are conversing with


the CEO, Stan Swales, and we’ve put a complaint out already,” the unnamed individual says. “We’ve had no formal reply from him.”


Steve Brown, a board member in the middle of his term, notes about 200 people attended the AGM. He adds that there was a lot of campaigning by all candidates.


“I think both sides ran


really hard and it was a fair race,” he says.


Troubled machine


Fair is in the eyes of the beholder. “Lots of things happened


wrong,” said the unnamed party. “It happened last year. At the board of directors meeting [prior to the election], we said if something went wrong with the machine we should hand- count it.” Apparently, the hand- counting did not happen and the scrutineers did not demand hand-counting after the machine had issues. The unnamed individual says the scrutineers also did not sign-


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off on the count results, which should be done. Gill says he would be satisfied with the outcome if the votes were hand-counted. While those concerned


over the vote-counting process would like to see responses to their concerns, the new board will move ahead with selecting a new chair and other positions at the regular executive meeting slated for November 23.


Brown thinks the shift in


board members will be good and may mean a small amount of positive change in the board’s direction. Another mid-term board


member, Amarjit Lalli, sees things differently. He doesn’t expect too much change with the addition of the two new board members. “I don’t think it will really change much,” he says. “We as a group were working quite well, so… at the end of the


day, you want diversity on the board. You want people from all different backgrounds. You want the bigger farmers and you want the smaller farmers. I think the two [new board members] that got elected also come from varying backgrounds.” Similar to Brown’s


comment, Lalli adds that the election was tightly contested. He sees that as a good thing in that it represents significant interest in the actions of the co-operative. “We need to take the


co-op in the direction of being more efficient,” Lalli notes. “We’ve got a lot of buildings. We own a lot of properties and a lot of repairs that need doing. Sooner or later, we’re going to have to consolidate: one plant up north and one plant down south. We’re going to have to put in new equipment, new machinery.” Lalli says vote counts aren’t


released, but he has heard rumours that it was a tight, close election.


“I think that when somebody loses, feelings are hurt and egos are hurt but at the end of the day, everyone’s professional,” he says. “There’s going to be another election next year and if anyone wants to run, they are more than welcome to run. We knew that the race was going to be tight. We knew it was going to be close. Ultimately, I think it was decided by a few votes.”


Gill did not make any comment on the possibility of running again, preferring to see if there will be responses to the concerns over the October election. While Brown notes the


elections are normally close and tightly run, this is one of the more controversial elections seen by the BCTF in recent years.


The newly elected BCTF


board consists of: Talwinder Bassi, Steve Brown, Steve Day, Sam DiMaria, Mohinder Dhaliwal, Nirmal Dhaliwal, Joginder Khosa, Amarjit Lalli, Mike Mitchell and Harbhajan Sidhu. Prior to the election, board members were: Talwinder Bassi, Steve Brown, Steve Day, Sam DiMaria, Mohinder Dhaliwal, Jeet Dukhia, Karmjit Gill, Joginder Khosa, Amarjit Lalli and Harbhajan Sidhu.


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