More delays for DFO transfer assessment hearing

Sunday, November 15, 2009

by SUSAN MANN

More delays face a new hearing into whether Dairy Farmers of Ontario should have exempted a group of former dairy farmers from its controversial former quota transfer assessment.

The Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal must wait until additional court proceedings are resolved before it can schedule another hearing.

In December 2008, the Tribunal exempted Bill Denby, Keith and Ron Jarvis and Dale McFeeters from paying the Dairy Farmers’ 15 per cent transfer assessment. The transfer assessment policy was introduced in November 2006 to moderate rising quota prices. It was eliminated when a new set of quota policies came into effect on Aug. 1.

The 2008 Tribunal decision says the farmers opposed the transfer assessment policy, and, when it was implemented, lost trust in the Dairy Farmer’s management of the industry. They felt compelled to exit the industry. The decision says Dairy Farmers’ denial of the farmers’ request for exemptions was not fair and reasonable. It ordered Dairy Farmers to refund the farmers a total of $803,753.52 without interest.

Dairy Farmers asked for the judicial review of tribunal’s decision and in October, the Ontario Superior Court struck down the Tribunal’s decision. As part of its 22-page written judgment the Court sent the matter back to the Tribunal for another hearing to determine if the farmers should get an exemption. The Superior Court justices also wrote that the Tribunal made a number of legal errors when it granted the exemptions.

Tribunal chair Kirk Walstedt says the farmers have filed a request seeking leave to appeal the Superior Court decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal. “Whether the Tribunal rehears the matter is dependent on the outcome of this court process,” he says.

Walstedt says he doesn’t know when the request seeking leave to appeal will be heard: “It’s out of our hands.”

If the farmers’ request for an appeal of the Superior Court’s decision were to be granted, the appeal would be heard in the Ontario Court of Appeal. BF