September 16, 2019

There have been a lot of exciting things happening at SK Livestock Finance Co-operative (SKLF) over the past couple of months! We are excited to share some of those updates with you today.

Firstly, we are thrilled to have received applications from over 800 members across the province! We have been working diligently since November 2018 to build a co-operative that offers innovative, affordable and competitive financing options for our members and we are looking forward to working together with all of you going forward.

We have made significant progress with processing the membership applications that we have received and are getting very close to beginning the transfer process of each Livestock Loan Guarantee Program (LLG) Association. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the membership application process, it is as follows:

  1. SKLF receives the membership applications and consent forms from the LLG Association Secretary for all its members.
  2. An SKLF Regional Secretary reviews all received forms to ensure they are accurate and complete. If any information is missing, the SKLF Regional Secretary works directly with the LLG Association Secretary and/or member to obtain the missing information.
  3. Once all applications are reviewed and complete, the SKLF Regional Secretary sends the signed consent forms off to the Association’s Financial Institution and the Ministry of Agriculture to obtain additional information about each grandfathered member. Information being collected at this stage includes, but is not limited to, current outstanding loan amounts, approved loan limits and summer 2019 inventory numbers.
  4. Once all information has been received from the Financial Institution and Ministry of Agriculture, the SKLF Regional Secretary prepares the Master Agreements, Schedules and Basic Member Rules documents for each member of that Association.
  5. When all documents are completed, the members of the Association will be contacted to sign all required documents.
  6. Once the documents have been signed by all members of the Association, SKLF will pay out the existing loans, coordinate the transfer of assurance funds and transfer the Association’s brands over to SKLF. (Members will not be required to rebrand as part of this transfer process.)

At this time, most of the applications are in steps 3, 4 and 5. We are processing documents as quickly as possible and have six people working full-time on transferring members over. We understand that the transfer process is taking longer than many would like (we agree with you!), and we truly appreciate your patience and co-operation as we work through the six steps outlined above.

SKLF is pleased to be working with BMO Bank of Montreal for all our financial needs. We are in the final stage of concluding the last of the paperwork and are looking forward to providing you with an update once everything is set up and ready to go.

While we cannot guarantee a timeline on when your loans will be officially transferred over, we are hopeful to have all 800+ members transferred over by the end of October.

Another exciting development for SKLF is that we have assembled a team of experts to work for your co-operative. We are pleased to introduce the following individuals on our team:

  • Bernardine Nelson, Regional Secretary
  • Brenda Pollard, Regional Secretary
  • Deb Petersen, Regional Secretary
  • Welma Bartel, Regional Secretary
  • Keri Kotyk, Finance Administration Officer
  • T.J. (Terry) Wensley, General Manager

Once you become a member, you will receive a member welcome package that outlines who your Regional Secretary is and their contact information. Our team members look forward to working with all of you. If you are interested in learning more about our team, please visit our website.

Finally, SKLF is looking forward to having a booth at Agribition this year! If you are planning to attend Agribition, November 25-30 in Regina, please stop by our booth to say hi. We look forward to meeting you.

If you have any questions about SKLF or the status of your membership application, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time. We are here to serve you.

Thanks again for your patience. Have a great day!

Terry

T.J. (Terry) Wensley, FCUIC, BAC
General Manager
SK Livestock Finance Co-operative Ltd.