The government assesses a fee, which supports the Board's activities and responsibilities. A board of directors is elected from various districts in the province. The major responsibility of the board is to negotiate the terms and conditions of the contract for each vegetable with the processors involved. Four deadline dates must be met for each stage of the negotiations. If agreement is not met by the final deadline, the government steps in to arbitrate the issues and make the final decision.
Arbitration occurs frequently and is the ultimate settlement of any issue.
In addition, the board has a committee that travels annually to Mexico, Jamaica and other countries that could supply field labor to negotiate the terms, hourly wage and other conditions to hire labor for the farms. These negotiations are conducted directly with the proper agencies of the labor-supplying country. Despite this direct line to foreign labor, decreasing availability of labor and higher associated costs are provoking a greater interest in mechanically harvested vegetables. In addition, certain product lines, like the stacker type of pickle cuts, lend themselves to mechanically harvested product rather than hand-harvest. Eighty percent of the Ontario pickle acreage is still harvested by hand, but that is gradually changing to machine harvest.