Grain Farmers hopeful of a quick decision on neonic appeal

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

by JIM ALGIE

Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) Chair Mark Brock expects a quick Ontario Court of Appeal decision following a hearing heavily attended by farmers objecting to new Ontario regulations for the use of neonicotenoid pesticides.

A judge’s question about the expected start of planting this year led Brock to conclude the three-judge panel who heard the appeal understand “the urgency of the decision,” he said in an interview, Thursday. Current weather and long-range forecasts indicate a mid-April start to planting is likely, GFO representatives told the court as the 28,000-member organization presses for changes to Ontario regulations that took effect in July.

As many as 200 farmers attended Wednesday’s hearing in a crowded Toronto courtroom where GFO lawyers sought a stay of implementation of the rules limiting use of neonicotenoid seed treatments beginning with the pending crop year, Brock said.

Weaker farm markets since the regulatory dispute began and widespread uncertainty among farm suppliers about the details complicate crop planning for 2016, Brock said by cell phone. The new rules take aim at preventive use of neonics and require farmers seeking treated seed to file evidence of the presence of pests.

The regulations lack specifics, however, about the timing of pest assessment documentation. At the same time, they do set a time limit on the validity of pest assessments, Brock said.

“Really what we’re asking for is for the court to ask the government to put a date in the regulations,” Brock said. “Because there isn’t really a date involved and there’s actually a date on how long they’re good for; it’s kind of ambiguous about what’s the right time to have them done.”

“We’re trying to get the regulations really to speak more to the agronomics of pest pressures and have that line up better,” he said.

Wednesday’s appeal followed an October Superior Court of Justice decision in which Judge A. Suhail A. Q. Akhtar declined to intervene. The trial judge held he lacked authority to rewrite the rules.

On appeal, GFO lawyers sought a stay of regulations until May or until a time when the regulator’s requirements can be met, judging by comments from the organization’s government Debra Conlon in a Better Farming story about the appeal in mid-January. Grain Farmers’ lawyers were also to seek what Conlon described in January as “a court review of the regulations.”

Wednesday’s appeal was heard by a three-judge panel composed of Justices John Laskin, Eleanore Cronk and Bradley Miller. Meanwhile, farmers and seed suppliers are struggling with the new regulations designed to reduce pressure from neonics on bee health in Ontario.

“It’s just turned into a complete side show to be honest,” Brock said when asked about current compliance efforts among farmers. “We’re trying to get paperwork done. Some producers aren’t getting the paperwork done as quickly as it needs to be done.”

Seed dealers seeking compliance find themselves caught in the middle of the dispute, Brock said.

“Farmers are trying to understand what they are responsible to do. Some guys are changing seed orders now to not have seed treatment . . . and that’s causing issues within the seed industry because they had treated seed based on orders back in the fall.”

“It’s kind of getting a little chaotic,” Brock said.

Weaker markets for farm commodities also underline the need for Ontario farmers to remain competitive with farmers elsewhere, the GFO chairman said.

“For sure we’re looking at some tougher prices now. The margins are getting slimmer,” Brock said.

“A lot of times, six or eight bushels of corn and maybe a couple of bushels for soybeans is really our profit margin,” he said. “So you start taking away tools or making it difficult to access tools like the neonic seed treatments and it’s those bushels that are usually our profit margin.”

Attendance at Wednesday’s hearing shows a continued high level of interest among farmers, the GFO chair said. With a courtroom seating capacity of only about 70 people, farmers in attendance — some of whom came in chartered buses — took turns during the 90-minute hearing.

“We filled the courtroom; it was standing room only,” he said. “People were spilled out into the hallway and we were able at breaks to rotate some people in for the second half of the hearing.”

“It’s a critical issue for our members,” Brock said. BF