Grower wants privacy commissioner to investigate wheat board leak

Sunday, September 7, 2008

by GEOFF DALE

A Lanark County wheat producer – after learning personal producer information had been transferred from the province's wheat board to a non-government organization – has filed a complaint with Ontario’s privacy commissioner.

“It was done without our permission,” says John Vanderspank, Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board representative for district 10. “I want to know what information was sent and why a motion was passed to OK this after the action had already been taken.”

The matter came to a head during the board’s annual meeting August 26 in Stratford when member producers learned personal information had been transferred from the board to OnTrace Agri-Food Traceability. Vanderspank says the board will address the issue in-camera at its meeting on Thursday.
 
OnTrace Agri-food Traceability was created in March 2006 as a not-for-profit corporation with a mandate of leading agriculture and agri-food traceability programs and initiatives in Ontario. According to its website, the organization's focus is delivering information to support provincial plans and responses to emergency situations and to "capitalize on innovative business opportunities where verifiable information can help support label claims, accelerate market access, and raise supply chain efficiencies.”

Board chair David Whaley says while he understands producers’ concern about privacy matters there was nothing “sinister” or “underhanded” about the transfer.

He says the board brought several industry stakeholders together about a year and a half ago to draft an emergency response plan for the wheat industry. It had been motivated by the presence of several problems within the agricultural sector and in particular the impact that the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) outbreak had on the cattle industry.

While “we never really got it (the plan) to the point where we wanted," in January, the board was approached by OnTrace. The board liked the organization's ideas and decided to enlist its services. "Wheat producers just can’t wait around for a BSE event to happen and not have something in place to deal with it,” says Whaley.

He says the board provided the information to help OnTrace clean up its database. But some producers, like Bev Hill of Huron County, suggest the manner in which it was done was simply wrong.

“The fact is this is an organization that represents me,” says Hill. “It took it upon itself to transfer personal data about me – whether this was to a government or a non-government organization.” That the organization isn't even a government one "makes it worse."

Hill points out that not all board members supported the decision to transfer the information. Moreover, producers don't know exactly what information was conveyed. “And not much was known because it had only been made public on a local farm broadcast on Monday (August 25)."

Some producers directed their displeasure at board general manager Larry Shapton, going as far as calling for his dismissal during the board's annual meeting. Hill says the matter of privacy goes well beyond the wheat board and could become a bone of contention for other boards.

“I think all boards – not just the wheat board – should review their governance policies to make sure there is no transfer or exchange of any personal producer information without their consent,” he says. BF