Working groups have been selected for the next phase of consultations on the province's Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act.

Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier says the groups will begin meeting in mid-June but there's no timeline for their recommendations to come forward.

"I'm going to give a lot of leeway to these technical working groups themselves on their work and their process, on working around the various needs of those technical working group members, around their farming operations, so we don't have a hard set deadline respecting those recommendations," Carlier says.

The Act came into effect January 1, 2016 but Carlier admitted regulations may not be available until a year to 18 months from now. He denies the Government was putting the cart before the horse.

"I don't think so, we've always said we were going to do a broad-based consultation and that's what we're looking forward top doing now," the minister says. "There's going to be 72 different folks, 12 per table, plus the chairs, so I'm really looking forward to hear these recommendations. It's important that we do hear from these diverse, balanced group of folks in the industry and health and safety experts, labour experts etc. to be able to get their input."

Minister of Labour, Christina Gray, says Occupational Health and Safety can look into farm safety incidents even without the regulations in place.

"If there's a serious injury or a death, what we'll be doing is taking a look at the environment where that's taken place and if there might be any lessons learned to prevent future accidents and sharing that information," Gray says. "This is not to say that the Occupational Health and Safety officers are going in with a set of regulations, because we don't have that for this industry."

Grace Strom of High River with the Alberta Beekeepers Commission is a member of the Labour Relations Working Group.

Judy Finseth co-owner of Bar Pipe Hereford Ranch near Okotoks is a members of the Occupational Health and Safety Education, Training and Certification Group.

For the full list of Working Groups and their members click here: http://www.alberta.ca/farm-and-ranch-consultations.cfm