First accreditation hearing set for July

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

The Ontario branch of the National Farmers Union is the first of the three provincial general farm organizations to schedule a hearing date to get its accreditation back.

The application for accreditation hearing will be held July 18 in the hearing room of the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal, 1 Stone Road W. It starts at 9:30 a.m. and one day has been scheduled for the hearing.

The hearing is open to the public and reporters, Tribunal chair Kirk Walstedt says by email.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture hasn’t applied for a date yet “because we have a couple of things we have to tidy up first,” says general manager Neil Currie. The federation has a question before the Tribunal to clarify a point about “what constitutes membership.”

He says, “We need an answer because we have to amend our financial statement as would the other organizations, as I understand.” The question has also been asked of the provincial agriculture ministry.

The federation has obtained an opinion from its legal counsel “but we want to make sure and see what the Tribunal thinks.”

The Tribunal told the NFU Ontario branch and the province’s two other general farm organizations, OFA and Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario in May that their accreditations were being denied. The groups must be accredited so they can receive the $195 fee farmers must pay as part of Ontario’s Farm Business Registration system.

As part of the system, farmers register annually with Agricorp and direct their fee to one of the three organizations. They can ask the farm group they selected for the fee back, and the registration is valid even if they receive a refund.

Farmers need the number to access a variety of government programs, including the farm property tax rebate. The system also provides for exemptions for religious objectors.

NFU Ontario branch coordinator Ann Slater says they’re working on getting their evidence ready. “We have to submit evidence ahead of time and most of our evidence is already together. We’re confident that we’ll be ready.”

Lorne Small, president of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, says they too are aiming for July to have their hearing. But no date has been set for the organization yet.

Small says their staff told him they’re making very good progress in their preparations. “They said things were progressing on schedule.”

Small attended the past two hearings and presented evidence and he expects to do the same thing this time. BF