A few changes are on the way for wild rice harvesters in the province’s north.
The 28th Annual Conference of the Saskatchewan Wild Rice Council was held Wednesday in La Ronge.
One resolution which was passed will see future annual meetings held on the weekend so more people can attend.
Another resolution, which was defeated, would have allowed people living outside of the Northern Administrative District to buy wild rice leases.
Letters will also be sent to the federal and provincial agriculture ministers, asking their departments to help market wild rice in China.
Council chair Lynn Riese says several people were honoured for their years of work in the industry, and they were selected by members of the Wild Rice Council.
“And I’m happy to say it was very successful.” he adds “There were five people that we gave awards to and the directors from each area picked them themselves. They were the ones that picked them, not anybody else.”
Posthumous awards were presented to the families of Tom Hamilton of La Ronge and Joe Fleury from northwest Saskatchewan.
The other awards went to George Smith of Pinehouse, Lawrence Lacendre of Clarke Lake and Doug Horner, formerly with the Saskatchewan Indian Agriculture Program.