Dairy farmer must pay transfer assessment

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Retired dairy farmer Jack Shaw was hoping to get back the $98,169.75 transfer assessment that went to Dairy Farmers of Ontario after he sold his quota three years ago and left the industry.

But last week, the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal ruled that it wouldn’t review its December 2009 decision that denied Shaw’s request for an exemption. The 15 per cent assessment on all but a farmer’s last 10 kilograms of quota, introduced November 2006, was replaced with new quota policies in August 2009.Shaw asked for the review because he “asserts the (original tribunal) panel made material errors of law and fact,” it says in the written decision released Feb. 8.

John O’Kane, tribunal vice chair, says, in last week’s decision, that he didn’t find any evidence or discussion in the records from the original tribunal hearing that Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s procedures “contained errors or omissions.”

O’Kane also wrote he wasn’t convinced of Shaw’s claim that the original tribunal panel was “somehow influenced by the DFO threat to appeal an adverse decision.”

Shaw initially asked Dairy Farmers for an exemption to the transfer assessment in July 2008 based on his age and the fact that he was planning an orderly exit from the dairy industry before the new policy was implemented. Dairy Farmers denied Shaw’s exemption request in September 2008. It also denied his request for reconsideration.

Meanwhile, farmers fighting the Dairy Farmers’ controversial transfer assessment policy in Ontario courts have yet to hear if they will be granted leave to appeal the most recent court decision.

In October 2009 the Ontario Superior Court struck down a 2008 Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal decision to exempt Bill Denby, Keith and Ron Jarvis and Dale McFeeters from paying the transfer assessment. The Superior Court decision also called for the Tribunal to schedule another hearing.

On Tuesday, Denby said he had not yet heard if the Ontario Court of Appeal would grant an appeal of the Ontario Superior Court decision.

The Tribunal must wait until additional court proceedings are resolved before it can schedule another hearing. BF