Commission plans December release of egg industry report

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission is on track to release an interim report in December outlining its review of Egg Farmers of Ontario’s policies and structure.

Commission chair Geri Kamenz says it’s still their plan to release the report in December as they said they would when the review began. There isn’t an exact date set aside for the report’s release.

The Commission told Better Farming in May it was contracting a third party to do a review of how the egg marketing board conducts its business. The review is being done in response to public requests for one. But one person requesting an inquiry, egg industry whistleblower Norman Bourdeau withdrew his request, lawyer Donald Good said in a May 16 Better Farming story.

Good also requested a public inquiry about one and a half years ago into the board’s activities on behalf of his client, Sweda Farms Ltd, which is involved in a lawsuit against the marketing board and other industry companies. Sweda claims the board and others undermined his business but those allegations haven’t been proven in court yet.

Will the interim report be made public? Kamenz says, “I’m sure it’s going to be accessible.” But the Commission isn’t planning to advertise its availability in provincial farming publications.

By doing the report, the Commission is focused on maintaining public trust within the system and the outcome of the Commission’s review “would be accessible to (interested) individuals.” The Commission will have a better idea of how it’s “going to roll” out the report closer to the planned release date in December.

Asked if the farm press would be able to get copies of the report, Kamenz says “I’m going to say yes and then if I’m wrong you’re going to be able to call me a liar.”

Once the interim report is released, Kamenz says he hopes people who have concerns about the system will review the report and recognize “the regulator is following up to ensure the system has integrity.”

The kinds of things the commission is looking at as part of the review and why it decided to do it are details of an investigation, Kamenz says, noting it is for that reason he can’t comment on those matters.

But he did say in the face of allegations that were made, the Commission wanted to satisfy itself “that the system was continuing to serve the producers, processors and the public with integrity. We are just following up to make sure that we’re doing our due diligence.”

As for when there will be a final report, Kamenz says he doesn’t know. BF