Tribunal to tackle chicken quota allotment, proposed dairy plant

Thursday, October 13, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Chicken Farmers of Ontario and a group representing the province’s dairy processors will be involved in two separate hearings at the Ontario Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal next month.

Chicken farmer Max Burt of Gore Bay is appealing a decision by Chicken Farmers of Ontario denying his request for allotment of basic quota for chicken production and marketing based on historic chicken production by his father during the qualifying period. The hearing is scheduled for Nov. 1 in Sudbury.

Burt couldn’t be reached for comment. Chicken Farmers communications coordinator Megan McCune says the board doesn’t make comments on anything that goes to the tribunal.

The other hearing involves the Ontario Dairy Council, which is appealing a decision by the director of OMAFRA’s food industry branch who granted a permit to Esskay Dairy Ltd. to construct or alter a building intended for use as a plant. That hearing is scheduled for Nov. 8 in Guelph.

Dairy council president Tom Kane couldn’t be reached for comment. In a Sept. 13 letter to the tribunal requesting the appeal, Kane says the director’s opinion is the plant is necessary but the council and dairy processing industry disagree.

Due to the limitations of the milk supply management agreement, which OMAFRA is the provincial government signatory, there is only a limited volume of milk available to all industrial milk processors. The milk that will be delivered to the Esskay Dairy plant will be taken away from other existing cheese, butter, and powder plants in Ontario, Kane writes.

Kane notes the director says Esskay Dairy will be providing products for a growing ethnic market but fails to mention that there are a number of processing plants that are already servicing that market. The director didn’t provide any evidence that granting this application will expand the total demand for milk. The fact that the application is for a small volume of milk is of no consequence, he says. BF