Randy Preater is a special adviser for the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA) and a legend in his own right. He sat with down Marc Zienkiewicz this week at the CSGA annual meeting in St. John’s, Nfld., to discuss a range of things, but one in particular — why hiring employees who have experience working in government has helped cement the CSGA’s reputation as a smart, strategic and driven organization.
Preater himself as a long background working for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. CSGA Executive Director Doug Miller came from the CFIA. CSGA’s policy director Mike Scheffel comes from CFIA. Former executive director Glyn Chancey was a CFIA alumnus. Certification Manager Brianna Chouinard also has a CFIA background.
So, we posed a big question to him: How does experience in government give someone an advantage in navigating this whole Seed Regulatory Modernization process and regulatory matters in general?
“It’s not so much what we learned working in government that helps, although that is an asset. I think a lot of us [ex-government employees] bring a common goal to get things done in terms of lessons we learned about public service, and learning how regulations really are designed with the public good in mind. That’s a that’s a key part of the CSGA mission, the public good,” he said.
“A lot of other organizations, like lobby or advocacy organizations, don’t have that in their mandate or mission statements at all. It is part of what makes CSGA unique, that we aren’t just working to the advantage or benefit of our members, but also the good of Canadian agriculture.”
