Commission, pork producers to address Tribunal on Monday

Thursday, March 5, 2009

© AgMedia Inc

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

On Monday, a Farm Product Marketing Commission lawyer will tell the Farm Products Appeal Tribunal it should dismiss hog producers’ appeals of the Commissions’ ruling on marketing made last fall. Consultant Elbert van Donkersgoed, acting on behalf of Glencoe producer, Rein Minnema, doesn’t think it will be nearly that simple.

Monday’s conference is a square off between the commission, which has ruled that Ontario Pork’s single desk selling powers should be rescinded, and producers who disagree.

On Jan. 29, Commission lawyer Robert H. Jaworski sent a letter to the Tribunal, stating the producers’ appeals “are not made in good faith” and the appellants “have not demonstrated sufficient interest in the subject matter of the appeals.”

On Monday van Donkersgoed says he received a “book” of court rulings “half an inch thick,” detailing why the Tribunal shouldn’t hear the appeal against the Commission.  “One week is not nearly adequate time to respond” to the commission’s arguments, van Donkersgoed says. He notified the Tribunal via fax on March 4 that he would file a response to the Tribunal by March. 23.

Kirk Walstedt, chair of the Farm Products Appeal Tribunal, says only one day for the hearing is scheduled. “Quite often we are looking at a lengthy hearing to streamline issues to make the hearing proceed in a timely manner.” 

Van Donkersgoed is aware of one instance, since 2000, when the Tribunal ruled on a Commission decision. That appeal was settled more than two years after the commission issued a decision on chicken marketing. “I fully expect the Tribunal will follow a somewhat similar process,” he says, if not the same timeline. The issues there were complex, he allows. 

Van Donkersgoed says fellow Middlesex producers Tony and Maria Felder are considering combining their appeal with his. 

John Vander Burgt, a member of Huron Pork Producers Association, another appellant, said it was difficult to find a lawyer knowledgeable in agriculture who would take on the case because of possible conflicts with other clients they were representing. As of Thursday, the association still hadn’t secured legal representation.

The conference, scheduled for 9 am Monday, at the Ramada Inn in Guelph, is open to the public, BF