Sinclair Harrison, in his capacities as President of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and as chair of the Farmer Railcar Coalition has had a significant impact on the lives of farmers and the economy of Saskatchewan.

Sinc was born in 1944 in Moosomin. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1984, he was the recipient of a Nuffield Scholarship to study agriculture and local government in Australia and New Zealand.

His involvement in local government began in 1974 when he was elected to the council of the Rural Municipality of Moosomin. In 1976, he was elected Reeve and served in that position until 2004, a total of 31 years of service.

In 1986, Sinc was elected to the board of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) and in 1994 he was elected President. He served in this position for eight years. No other person has served a longer term as SARM President.

Sinc served on SARM’s Indian Land Claims Committee and was instrumental in negotiating municipal property tax loss compensation agreements involving the Government of Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan and SARM for both treaty land entitlement and specific land claims. These tax loss compensation agreements helped smooth the way for the purchase of lands by Saskatchewan First Nations to fulfill treaty obligations.

A number of farm organizations were involved in the formation of the Farmer Railcar Coalition in 1996. Sinc has served as chair since the inception. The goal of the organization was to ensure that the ownership of the federal grain hopper rail car fleet was either retained by the federal government or transferred to producers.

The work of Sinc and the coalition has been instrumental in identifying inefficiencies and overcharging in the grain handling system. The end result has been savings for Prairie grain producers estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Through his career, Sinc served on many other boards and committees including ACRE, the Action Committee on the Rural Economy. In addition, he operated the family farm for 30 years. Sinc and his wife Gail has five children and at the time of Sinc’s induction 15 grandchildren.

Throughout his long history of public involvement, he displayed integrity, tenacity and the will to make the province a better place to live.