Dairy quota policy hearing concludes this month

Thursday, May 7, 2009

by SUSAN MANN

A hearing to strike down Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s current quota policy including the controversial section on transfer assessments wraps up later this month at the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal.

The hearing concludes on May 29 with summations and closing comments. It was held Feb. 3-6 in Ottawa and April 27-May 1 in Guelph.

The policy calls for a 15 per cent transfer assessment on all production quota sold on the provincial organization’s quota exchange effective Nov. 17, 2006. Several farmers successfully challenged having to pay the assessment and, in related decisions, the Tribunal has ordered DFO to refund a total of $918,246.32.

DFO has declined to outline how it defended a decision to not rescind its three-year-old quota policy. Spokespeople for the Ontario Quota Rights Organization, which is appealing the Tribunal to reverse the provincial dairy organization’s decision, can’t be reached for comment. 

George MacNaughton, DFO production and regulatory compliance division director, says “our position was presented to the Tribunal and we’re not going to make it public.” He also declines to speculate on what the impact would be if the Tribunal orders the elimination of the quota policy.

MacNaughton says DFO’s board declined a request to rescind the policy last year. “We put it in place for the sustainability and the long-term interests of the dairy industry,” he says. “Why would we rescind it?”
 
On Aug. 1, DFO will introduce new quota policies as Ontario and the other four P5 provinces (Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) introduce harmonized policies across all those provinces. The new policies will immediately eliminate transfer assessment, exemption of the last 10 kilograms from the assessment, and the pay-what-you-bid policies.

Other polices would be phased in during this year and next. They include a quota price cap, new entrant quota assistance program, a change in the over-production credits and a requirement that future general quota increases applying to all farmers would be non-saleable. Information about the new policies is available on DFO’s website. BF