The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission is refusing to say what it will do, if anything, about complaints of widespread problems in the egg industry.
Chairman Geri Kamenz declined to answer a list of e-mailed questions, saying it would be “inappropriate to make any comments about this matter right now.”
Harry Pelissero, general manager for the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board, said “I am aware of the allegations” made by Norman Bourdeau, a former employee of L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd. and, noting that there are lawsuits underway involving Bourdeau, the egg board, Sweda Farms Ltd., Gray and Burnbrae Farms Ltd. said “I am limited in what I can say.”
“We take the allegations seriously,” he says of a 170-page report Bourdeau filed with the commission in which he calls for an inquiry. Donald Good, lawyer for Sweda Farms, has also called for an inquiry.
Pelissero said the egg board is “co-operating fully” with the commission. He said Bourdeau’s allegations “are without merit and foundation.”
Kamenz would not say whether the commission will conduct an inquiry or whether it has ordered audits at the egg board and grading stations, also citing the lawsuits as his reason for not commenting.
Among the e-mailed list of questions he declined to answer was one seeking to know whether there are regulations to forbid those who are importing eggs from declaring surplus eggs that are removed from the “table egg” market and sold at a lower price for processing. Farmers fund the price gap.
Among the e-mailed list of questions he declined to answer was one seeking to know whether there are regulations to forbid those who are importing eggs from declaring surplus eggs that are removed from the “table egg” market and sold at a lower price for processing. Farmers fund the price gap.
In 1975, Joe Hudson, the owner of Burnbrae Farms Ltd. of Lyn, Ont., was removed as a director of the Ontario Egg Producers Marketing Board by former agriculture minister William Newman because he was both importing eggs from the U.S. and declaring surplus eggs to the marketing board.
A person who has worked for the egg board on import permits and surplus declarations said the operating approach has been a requirement of a two to three-week gap between seeking a supplementary import permit and declaring a surplus.
It has, however, been a practice at the national agency level to deal with shortages and surpluses on a specific-market basis such as a shortage of organic eggs while there’s a surplus of Grade A Large eggs.
Bernadette Cox, who speaks for the national agency, refused to divulge whether there is a specific regulation at that level dealing with near-simultaneous importation of eggs and declarations of surplus eggs. She would only say that the national agency is charged with the responsibility of balancing supply and demand.
