24 GERMINATION.CA SEPTEMBER 2018 FROMMERGERSTOROYALTIES: VIEWSONSEEDSYNERGY Members of the Seed Synergy oversight committee — and the president of CropLife Canada — shed some light on how they feel the process is unfolding and whether our industry can put aside differences and come together. Todd Hyra Western Business Manager, SeCan President, Canadian Seed Trade Association There’s a lot more work that needs to be done before we have any structure in place and so producer groups can understand how this will benefit them. It’s about incentivizing breeders from across the world to come to Canada, but also make sure our homegrown talent stays here and continues to invest and is rewarded and gets the resources they need to breed crops producers want to grow. ON HOW THE CONCEPT OF THE TRAILING ROYALTY WILL BE RECEIVED: We knew things would be slow, but when you try and bring six organizations together, things take time. You have to remember this is solely exploration. We’re simply looking at the possibility of merg- ing. We’re not saying this is what we’re going to do. With CropLife Canada being a part of it — but at the same time not being a part of it — we’ll see how it plays out. We’re on the tip of the iceberg now to see if we’re all on the same page and want to work together. Everyone wants to do it fast. I agree with doing it as fast as we can, but it takes time to talk to everyone and get their opinions. Ron Markert President, Markert Seeds ON REACHING THE GOAL OF A MERGER BY 2020: ON THE INTERWORKINGS OF THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: We’ve only had five one-hour conference calls. Each one is only an hour long. We’ve only met face-to-face twice. It’s proving to be a challenge to get everyone on the same page. One of the big issues is trust. We have to learn to do that, and it won’t happen overnight. One of the challenges we have at CSGA is the fact we have 3,500 members. We have a lot of people to communicate with before we can make a decision. For us that’s a year-long process. 2019 is the earliest anything can even be decided.