Alberta Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Company
AFCEC elevator in Viking, Alberta 1913
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| Farmers' cooperative | |
| Industry | Grain |
| Successors | United Grain Growers |
| Founded | Alberta, Canada (25 March 1913) |
| Defunct | 1 September 1917 |
| Headquarters | Canada |
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Area served
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Alberta |
The Alberta Farmers’ Co-operative Elevator Company (AFCEC) was a farmer-owned enterprise that provided grain storage and handling services to farmers in Alberta, Canada between 1913 and 1917, when it was merged with the Manitoba-based Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) to form the United Grain Growers (UGG).
In the early 20th century wheat farming was expanding fast in the Canadian prairies. For years the prairie farmers complained of unfair treatment and lack of true competition between the existing line elevator companies, who owned the grain elevators where the grain was stored before being loaded into railway cars. In response to these complaints the Manitoba Grain Act was passed in 1900. The act was well-meaning, but at first was ineffective, and a series of amendments were needed to iron out the flaws.
The Alberta Farmers’ Co-operative Elevator Company (AFCEC) had its roots in agitation by the agrarian reformer Edward Alexander Partridge of Sintaluta. The organization meeting for the Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) was held in Sintaluta, Manitoba on 27 January 1906, with Partridge as the first president. The GGGC was a cooperative marketing company, but at first did not own elevators.
In 1908 Partridge published the "Partridge Plan" in which he advocated many reforms to the structure of the grain industry, including government ownership of elevators. Under pressure, the Manitoba government purchased elevators in 1910, but the operation was not successful. The Manitoba elevators were leased by the GGGC in 1912. In Saskatchewan premier Thomas Walter Scott arranged for a Royal Commission on Elevators in 1910. The commission recommended a system where the elevators would be cooperatively owned by the farmers rather than by the government. In 1911 legislation was passed by which the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company (SCEC) was incorporated to run elevators under this model.
The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) called on the government to own and operate elevators before 1911, but the UFA's elevator committee did not agree with way that public elevator were organized in Manitoba. In 1911 the UFA asked Alberta premier Arthur Sifton to set up a co-operative system along the same lines as Saskatchewan. Sifton declined to act. At the 1913 UFA convention the committee presented a revised proposal. While based on the act that created the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company (SCEC) in 1911, it gave more control to the farmers and let the company handle farm products of all types. The UFA delegates overwhelmingly approved the proposal. The government worked with the UFA to draft a bill of incorporation along the proposed lines.
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