The Wild Rose Agricultural Producers Amendment Act, 2013 changes the legal framework for the incorporated agricultural organization formerly known as Wild Rose Agricultural Producers. It renames the corporation the Alberta Federation of Agriculture and replaces its statutory purpose with a broader mandate to represent producers at regional, provincial and national levels.
The bill also removes several legacy governance provisions, including inherited bylaws and the statutory definition of an “extraordinary resolution.” It preserves the organization’s non-profit character while giving its board control over the location of the head office.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill changes the corporation’s statutory name to the Alberta Federation of Agriculture and replaces its incorporation-purpose language. It repeals provisions carrying forward the predecessor society’s bylaws, defining extraordinary resolutions, and fixing the head-office location in Edmonton.
Who It Affects
The corporation, its members, directors and local organizational structures are directly affected. Alberta agricultural producers may be affected indirectly through the organization’s revised statutory mandate and governance framework.
Why It Matters
This is a targeted private-law restructuring rather than a sector-wide agricultural regulation. Its significance lies in shifting key governance matters from the original incorporation statute toward the corporation’s own bylaws and board decisions.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill amends the 1959 statute that incorporated the organization. Its most visible change is the replacement of “Wild Rose Agricultural Producers” with “Alberta Federation of Agriculture” as the corporation’s legal name.
The corporation continues as the same incorporated body, with perpetual succession and a common seal; the bill does not create a new entity or dissolve the existing one.
The replacement purpose clause gives the corporation a general representational role at regional, provincial and national levels. It frames that role around cooperation and communication among producers and the advancement of agriculture as a whole, rather than listing the predecessor statute’s more detailed objectives.
The repealed list had addressed farm income, fair trade, rural quality of life, value-added industry and producer information. The new wording is broader and less program-specific.The bill retains the rule that the corporation’s income and property must be used for its objects and purposes, rather than distributed to members as dividends or bonuses.
It also retains the ability to pay reasonable remuneration and reimburse expenses for genuine services provided to the corporation. The amendment therefore changes the organization’s identity and mandate without converting it into a profit-distributing corporation.Several inherited governance rules are removed.
The bill repeals the provision that automatically continued the predecessor society’s bylaws, rules and regulations, including rules about local formation, delegate elections and voting. It also removes the statutory definition of an extraordinary resolution, leaving those matters to be addressed elsewhere, including in the corporation’s bylaws where applicable.
Finally, the board may choose the corporation’s head-office location anywhere in Alberta instead of the statute naming Edmonton as the default location.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The corporation’s legal name changes to “Alberta Federation of Agriculture,” while the existing corporation continues with perpetual succession.
The new purpose clause expressly authorizes representation of members at regional, provincial and national levels for the benefit of agricultural producers generally.
The bill removes the predecessor society’s statutory objectives, including specific references to farm income, fair trade, rural communities, value-added industry and producer information.
Section 13’s automatic continuation of the predecessor society’s bylaws, rules and regulations is repealed, including its transitional rules for locals and delegates.
The board of directors, rather than the statute or the corporation as a whole, may determine the location of the head office anywhere in Alberta.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Identifies the statute being amended
This clause establishes that the bill amends the 1959 incorporation statute governing the organization. It operates as the enabling provision for the targeted changes that follow.
Renames the corporation
The Act’s title is replaced with the Alberta Federation of Agriculture Act. The change aligns the statute with the corporation’s new legal name and removes the former “Wild Rose Agricultural Producers” designation from the governing legislation.
Replaces the incorporation purpose
The new section 2 continues the corporation as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, but states that it operates under the name Alberta Federation of Agriculture. Its statutory objective becomes representing members at regional, provincial and national levels and promoting cooperation and communication for the benefit of agriculture as a whole.
The drafting is materially less detailed than the former purpose clause. It no longer hard-codes individual objectives such as sustainable farm income, fair trade, rural quality of life, value-added industry or producer information into the incorporation statute.
Preserves the non-profit income rule
The replacement section 9(1) continues to dedicate the corporation’s income and property to its statutory and bylaw purposes. Members cannot receive distributions by way of dividends, bonuses or similar payments.
The provision keeps the existing operational exception: the corporation may pay reasonable remuneration or reimburse expenses for bona fide services actually provided. That distinction allows ordinary compensation and expense payments without weakening the organization’s non-profit structure.
Removes inherited governance provisions
Section 13 is repealed, ending the statutory carryover of the predecessor society’s bylaws, rules and regulations. The repeal removes a direct legislative link to legacy rules governing locals, delegates and voting, which can give the corporation greater responsibility for maintaining its current governance framework.
Section 14 is also repealed. That section defined an extraordinary resolution as either a two-thirds vote after specified notice or unanimous written approval. The bill does not replace that definition in the text provided, so the corporation will need to rely on another valid source for any special-resolution requirements.
Gives the board control over the head office
The amended section 17 provides that the head office is located wherever the board of directors decides within Alberta. This removes the previous statutory reference to Edmonton and allows the organization to relocate without another legislative amendment, subject to any other applicable corporate or bylaw requirements.
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Who Benefits
- Alberta Federation of Agriculture directors, who gain explicit authority to select the head-office location within Alberta and greater flexibility to manage the corporation’s governance framework.
- Members seeking a unified provincial and national advocacy organization, because the replacement purpose clause expressly supports representation beyond a single local or regional setting.
- The corporation’s administrators, who can operate under a current legal name and are no longer bound by statutory continuation of rules inherited from the predecessor society.
- Agricultural producers represented by the corporation, to the extent the broader purpose clause allows the organization to address common sector concerns without a statute listing a fixed set of activities.
Who Bears the Cost
- The corporation and its directors, which must ensure that bylaws and internal rules adequately replace the repealed statutory provisions on locals, delegates, voting and special resolutions.
- Members and local organizations, which lose the certainty of the predecessor society’s rules being automatically preserved in the incorporation statute.
- Corporate administrators and legal advisers, who must update the organization’s name across records, contracts, policies and public-facing materials.
- Future members and counterparties, who may face less clarity from the statute itself about voting thresholds and extraordinary resolutions unless the corporation’s bylaws supply that detail.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill trades detailed legislative guardrails for organizational flexibility. A broad mandate and board-controlled administration can help an agricultural federation respond to changing sector priorities, but less statutory detail also places more responsibility on directors and members to define governance rules, voting procedures and accountability through the corporation’s own instruments.
The bill simplifies and modernizes the corporation’s statute, but it also removes legal detail. The former Act supplied concrete rules about inherited bylaws and extraordinary resolutions.
Repealing those provisions may reduce conflicts between old statutory language and current organizational practice, but it creates a governance gap if the corporation’s bylaws do not clearly address the same subjects.
The new purpose clause is broad enough to support advocacy across several levels of government and across agricultural issues. That flexibility comes at the cost of statutory specificity: the legislation no longer expressly identifies objectives such as fair trade, farm income or rural community development.
The practical effect will depend more heavily on the corporation’s bylaws, resolutions and actual activities.
The bill also separates legal identity from location. The corporation remains Alberta-based, but the board can move the head office within the province without returning to the Legislature.
That is administratively flexible, although members may have less statutory certainty about where the organization’s central operations will be located.
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