Tribunal cuffs Commission

Saturday, June 20, 2009

© AgMedia Inc.

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The Ontario Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal has brought changes to pork marketing in the province to a crawl, if not a complete halt.

In a ruling Friday, more than two months after a pre-hearing conference in Guelph Apr. 17, Tribunal Vice-chair Marthanne Robson ruled that a stay should remain on the Farm Products Marketing Commission’s order last October that stripped Ontario Pork of its marketing powers. If not for the appeals currently before the Tribunal, Regulation 419 would have been revoked and open marketing of hogs would have begun April 1. 

Robson reluctantly allowed pilot projects on alternative ways to market hogs and make settlements to continue as long as they are within Regulation 419.

His client is pleased, says Elbert van Donkersgoed, acting as an agent for western Ontario farmer Rein Minnema, who first filed for a hearing against the Commission ruling, which stripped Ontario Pork of its marketing powers last October. Other producers and county organizations have appealed the Commission ruling since.

“The stay (on changes to marketing) is complete,” said van Donkersgoed. Robson “is allowing only marginal activities outside of the stay.” Most important, he says, Regulation 419 which governs marketing of hogs in Ontario, will remain unchanged. “We are very comfortable with changing things, based on Regulation 419,” he said. 

“This is just what we need to go forward in what we think is a better direction than what the commission has for the pork sector,” van Donkersgoed said, after a quick read of the 13-page decision. “We can look forward to the kind of hearing we think should happen based upon this decision.”

The Tribunal has yet to decide if it will repeat the Commission hearings last summer, hear arguments on evidence presented then, or some variation in between. Robson ordered parties make submissions to the Tribunal within a week on this issue and gave parties  and intervenors another six days to respond to those submissions. 

Robson wrote that “the Commission. . . . proved no evidence of what irreparable damage the pork industry would suffer if the stay was not lifted.” 

That wasn’t the only slap Robson had for the Commission. 

Robson was also critical of the makeup and decisions made by the current, and controversial, Hog Industry Advisory Committee (HIAC). It wasn’t made up according to Regulation 419 but can continue to operate as long as it is under current regulations. 

Van Donkersgoed, says he and Minnema are comfortable that the HIAC committee is allowed to operate “only as structured in the Current Regulation 419.”

Van Donkersgoed says he and Minnema didn’t mind the pilot projects continuing as far as 3P and Conestoga meat Packers was concerned. “Minnema won’t stand in the way of that,” he says, noting that producers must still pay marketing fees to Ontario Pork. BF