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Board Structure & Committees
Following the 2025 Annual General Meeting, Alberta Canola’s Board of Directors meets to elect the Chair, Vice-Chair, national representatives, and Committees.
The Board meets four times each year and is guided in its decisions by the recommendations from Alberta Canola’s five committees.
Alberta Canola Chair: Andre Harpe Alberta Canola Vice-Chair: Charles Simoneau
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Back Row – Left to Right: Roger Chevraux, Jeff Frost, Jeannette Andrashewski, Justin Nanninga, Cheryl Westman, Christine McKee
ALBERTA CANOLA’S COMMITTEES
Alberta Canola is guided by six committees which contribute to the efficient operation of the commission. Each committee is focused on a key area of business which helps to guide the overarching strategies for Alberta Canola.
*Alberta’s Canola Chair resides on all committees.
Governance & HR
The Governance Committee is responsible for all aspects of board governance, including training and succession planning for the board and Executive Director. Policy manual review as well as the annual performance reviews of the Executive Director are the responsibility of this committee.
Committee Chair: Charles Simoneau
Committee Members: Jeannette Andrashewski, Paula Law, Christine McKee, Cheryl Westman, Andre Harpe*
Finance & Audit
Committee Chair: Charles Simoneau
Committee Members: Jeannette Andrashewski, Paula Law, Jeff Frost, Alan Hampton, Andre Harpe*
Government & Industry Affairs
The Government and Industry Affairs Committee is responsible for promoting canola grower interests at the local, provincial, and national levels. The committee will provide feedback to the Manager of Government & Industry Affairs on initial analysis to further develop and enrich discussion and understanding of the issues at hand.
Committee Chair: Roger Chevraux
Committee Members: Charles Simoneau, Justin Nanninga, Christine McKee, Cheryl Westman, Andre Harpe*
Research
The Research Committee provides guidance to Alberta Canola on research related activities. This includes meeting Alberta Canola’s goals for agronomic and product development research. The broad goals for these areas are to find better ways to grow canola, find better ways to control pests, and find news uses for canola oil and meal. The committee directs research funding through numerous national and provincial partnerships that allow them to achieve their goals while optimizing the best leverage of grower dollars.
Committee Chair: Alan Hampton
Committee Members: Christi Friesen, Justin Nanninga, Cheryl Westman, Andre Harpe*
Grower Engagement & Extension
The Grower Engagement and Extension Committee is responsible for ensuring growers have access to agronomy, marketing, and farm management information through its communications program along with event planning and sponsorship. The Committee is also committed to ensuring canola growers, the agriculture industry, and partners are informed of Alberta Canola’s goals, objectives, and activities.
Committee Chair: Christine McKee
Committee Members: Christi Friesen, Jeff Frost, Roger Chevraux, Andre Harpe*
Public Engagement & Promotion
The goal of the Public Engagement & Promotions committee is to support, guide, and implement actions to create, build, and maintain positive relationships between producers and stakeholders, especially consumers. The committee addresses agricultural issues that could affect public trust and the canola market share and connects producers to end consumers through determinative programming, effective marketing and sponsorships, educational approaches at events and conferences, and campaigning for more agriculture in the classroom.
Committee Chair: Jeannette Andrashewski
Committee Members: Jeff Frost, Christine McKee, Cheryl Westman, Andre Harpe*
NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
Canola Council of Canada: Justin Nanninga
Canadian Canola Growers Association: Roger Chevraux, Andre Harpe, Christine McKee
Western Canadian Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee: Cheryl Westman
National Canola Marketing Plan: Jeanette Andrashewski, Cheryl Westman
PROVINCIAL REPRESENTATIVES
Team Alberta Crops: Roger Chevraux
Agri-Environmental Partnership of Alberta: Roger Chevraux
AgSafe Alberta: Jeff Frost
RDAR – Results Driven Agricultural Research: Alan Hampton
FarmTech Foundation of Alberta: Christi Friesen, Paula Law