Battle over pork board's authority heats up

Thursday, January 15, 2009

© Copyright AgMedia Inc

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Huron  County, home to more than 15 per cent of the province’s pork producers and 17 per cent of the hogs, is challenging the Farm Products Marketing Commission’s decision to dismantle the provincial marketing board.

Huron County Pork Producers, District 3 of Ontario Pork, has added its voice to those protesting the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission’s decision to wrest monopoly powers from Ontario Pork. Huron has more pork producers than any other county in Ontario.

“Why wouldn’t we?” responds John Vanderburgt, a Huron councilman, when asked why his district decided to take an appeal to the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal.

The appeal, sent Jan. 14, joins two others concerning the Oct. 3 Commission decision ordering the dismantling of the provincial marketing organization’s single desk selling system. The pork board’s authority to mandate logistics, schedule delivery of hogs to processors, settle payment between processors and producers, and disseminate sales data is at stake. The organization would still be allowed to offer sales and marketing services to producers.

In November, the Commission appointed an 11-member committee to monitor the transition, which the board has until April to complete.

“We’re losing a lot of marketing powers given to us originally by the Ministry of Agriculture plus the vote producers had 40-50 years ago, and the concerns that were initiated by the hearing could have been dealt with within the marketing powers that existed,” Vanderburgt says.

The district is also concerned that the Commission “stepped out of bounds” by imposing a short timeline to complete the changes “without any real proper consultation with producers.”

Vanderburgt says the composition of the committee overseeing the transition is also being appealed. The majority of those appointed have had “a negative tone towards the board for a number of years.”

Perth County, with more than 14 per cent of producers and about 17 per cent of the provinces hogs is not challenging the Commission’s decision.

Two Lambton County producers, Tony Felder and Rein Minnema have also filed separate appeals.

The Tribunal is drafting a formal response to Huron producers, says spokesman Lorne Widmer. Tribunal staff has fielded other inquiries about the issue, he says.

“Given the number of appellants so far and the potential complexity of the appeal itself, this one we’ll have to approach very methodically,” he says. “If we can, we would try and combine it, I think, into one appeal.” Doing so would require the permission of the appellants, he adds.

Widmer says it will be a few weeks before a decision is made on whether to consolidate the appeals. BF