© AgMedia Inc.
by GEOFF DALE and BETTER FARMING STAFF
The board representing Ontario’s tobacco growers wants to know how an order from the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission will affect its efforts to look into a class action suit on behalf of growers.
Board spokesperson Linda Lietaer confirmed the issue was one of a number the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board wants to discuss with the Commission in connection with its March 25 order that severely restricts the board’s activities.
The tobacco board has asked a Windsor-based law firm to explore a possible class action lawsuit related to the 2008 guilty pleas of Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. to violating the federal Excise Act. The board does not have to pay the firm up front for its work, Lietaer says.
The Commission’s order reduces many of the board’s powers, including:
• Limiting the board’s spending powers to day-to-day operations to do with tobacco marketing and production;
• Prohibiting spending on new crop research for former tobacco growers, negotiations with Agricorp about tobacco production insurance or research on the board’s future role; and
• Requiring it to obtain the Commission’s approval on any new initiatives that exceed $10,000, class action litigation activities and staff reductions.
It will allow the board to charge license fees and service charges to “producers, buyers or other persons over the period April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.”
But the order may be the least of the board’s worries.
Elmer Buchanan, the Commission’s vice chair points out that recruiting for the 11-member board could present a huge problem. The regulations governing the board require members to be a grower. “If they take the (federal) buyout and are not growing, then they can’t serve on the board,” he says.
Just how many remain in the industry?
Lietaer says 18 growers did not apply for the buyout.
Under its tobacco transition programs, the federal government allocated $286 million to buy quota at $1.05 per pound on the condition that growers never plant the crop again. Another $15 million will go to community development in areas affected by the industry’s collapse.
Lietaer can’t confirm how many growers have taken the buyout because one grower may have produced tobacco under more than one farm number and each farm number had to have an application. Board documents show there were 1,073 basic production quota holders in 2007.
She says applications representing 99.7 per cent of the provincial industry’s total quota of 272 million pounds were forwarded to the federal government for approval March 31. “They hope to have a response back to us within 10 working days,” Lietear says, but notes there was no response by April 8.
Lietaer says the board’s only role in the 2009 crop is checking applicants’ eligibility and issuing licenses. Securing a contract for the entire crop is one of the criteria.
Growers have until May 15 to apply for a license. Lietaer says she won’t know until then how many will grow tobacco.
As for the board’s future role, “that is up in the air,” she says, noting the board is hoping to discuss the issue with the Commission.
Buchanan says the federal government has promised licenses to grow and sell tobacco, but how system will evolve and what the board’s role will be – or if there will even be a board - are open-ended questions. BF
Comments
The Commission has to let the Board finish what they started. They have not yet secured a complete package for the growers. Reliquishing our quota for $1.05 does not cut it. Once the debts are paid off the farmers are left with little to absolutely nothing - many are still in huge debt. The lawsuit will pay for itself and the board is working on behalf of their membership. If the board is pursuing a crop for tobacco farmers to transition to then the Commission should realize that this is the most responsible thing the Board can do for its members and let it be. If the mandate of the Board has to be adjusted to allow all this then so be it. Let the people do their job. They have the ways, means and knowleged to continue on on our behalf. Why on earth would your replace them or dissolve the board when they are not finished. Again Common Sense -why is it when we are dealing with the government common sense dissapears?
This is typical of the Liberal government the farm products commission.I wonder who they really work for ???
This is what happens when people with political aspirations are place in positions of Authority; they become lackeys to those that put them there
Minister Dombrowsky should hang her head in shame that she is allowing this to happen. The liberal government under Premier Dalton McGuinty is refusing to participate in the Federal buyout program and using the FPMC to limit producers’ ability to fight the issue.
We as tobacco farmers should take a page from the pork producers who have also had the ability of the producer elected board to manage its affairs undermined by a FPMC. Appeal the orders of the FPMC to the Appeals Tribunal. Then we can continue as we please while the tribunal sorts the mess out.
Limbo down FPMC you are continuing to lower the bar for Ontario Agriculture.
About time government took control of this cesspool of self-serving individuals. Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission needs to get rid of them asap for the sake of Canadian taxpayers. The Commission should be suing them for self-dealing and fraud on the taxpayers.
Very strong words - you sure do NOT know what you are talking about.
The lawsuit will move forward with or without the board. The province has really stiffed the growers. The growers who left in 2005 got $1.74 and sold their equipment into a decent market. Unfortunately, the funding for the TAPP program could not accommodate all of the growers who wanted to leave. Now, the remaining growers are stuck with $1.05 and no market for machinery. How are we supposed to invest for a transition when there is still bank debt from tobacco?
The government has taken at gunpoint the quota for which I paid. My equipment has been made worthless. Even the price of scrap is down. The government has expropriated my family's livelihood at 30 cents on the dollar.
And to make it a double whammy, many of the people from the area who used to work in tobacco have been laid off from their transition jobs in the auto parts industry.
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