Restaurants Canada CEO says association is being shut out of chicken price consultations

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

The association representing the country’s restaurants, the second largest buyer of Canadian chicken, is being shut out of the consultations to amend minimum live prices for Ontario chicken, says a spokesman.

Garth Whyte, Restaurants Canada CEO and president, says in an Oct. 28 letter to commissioners of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission its request for information from the commission hasn’t been answered. That request was initially made in an Oct. 8 letter to the commission.

“We are frustrated because we want to contribute to the important review work taking place and respond to the amendments you are considering, ” Whyte says in the Oct. 28 letter. He adds the process to update how live prices are set in Ontario is important because prices set for chicken in Ontario “determines the price charged across the whole country.”

The commission posted a proposal on the Ontario Regulatory Registry Sept. 22 and requested comments by Nov. 6. The proposal calls for the minimum live price to be based on an actual cost of production using a survey of producer costs and a model farm for elements not covered in the survey. Currently the farmers’ minimum live prices are determined by three factors – chick costs, feed prices and producer margin. The current method for establishing minimum live prices has been in place since 2002.

Specifically, the restaurant association asked the commission to provide it with:

• A copy of the proposed amendments along with proposed prices and costs.
• A full description of the cost of production formula in place since 2002, including any modifications either in the formula or assigned costs/prices.

Whyte says in an interview “I want to give them the benefit of the doubt that it’s an incompetent bureaucracy that’s not getting back to us or it just shows how flawed the process is because it’s not open information.”

Without this information, “our association is unable to respond to the commission’s invitation to provide commentary on the proposed amendments by the deadline of Nov. 6 because these amendments have not been made known. For that matter, details of the COP (cost of production) used since 2002 have also not been shared publicly,” he says in the letter.

Whyte adds the restaurant industry buys $2.2 billion worth of Canadian chicken annually. The largest buyers of chicken in Canada are grocery retailers.

He says in the interview the association is considering its options of what to do next. It may request an extension in the comment period from Premier Kathleen Wynne or the agriculture ministry or file an Access to Information request to get the details it wants.

Since the association doesn’t have the information it says it needs, it can’t gauge if the “amendments proposed by the current review significantly advance the consumer, our industry – ultimately the public interest,” he says in the letter.

Restaurants Canada has said for some time it wants to be a full partner “promoting the growth and further development of the chicken industry,” he says.

Commission chair Geri Kamenz couldn’t be reached for comment. BF