The written brief from the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors (AOCP) concludes with an attack on Cericola Farms Ltd. that was missing from lawyer Herman Turkstra’s oral submissions during a recent hearing held by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission.
When I asked for a copy after the hearing, I was told by the AOCP people that they did not have a copy to share, but general manager Kevin Thompson promised to e-mail one. It came today.
The written brief says “over its many years of experience with the OIPP (Ontario Independent Poultry Processors association), the AOCP has seen no evidence that OIPP resents or deals with any issues other than those of importance to Cericola Farms and Sure Fresh.
“At virtually every meeting attended by both AOCP and OIPP, the representations and positions advanced by Mr. (Hank) Van Voorst in his stated role on behalf of the OIPP have dealt exclusively with the interests of Cericola and Sure Fresh.
“The chair of OIPP, Hank van Voorst and the general manager, John Slot, are employees or agents of Cericola Farms and/or Sure Fresh.”
The brief explains why, at the opening of the hearing, Slot read two letters into the record. The first dated the Friday before the hearing which was held on Tuesday, was a letter from Van Voorst resigning as chair of OIPP. The second, dated the day before the hearing, was from Cericola Farms withdrawing its membership from the OIPP.
Three OIPP members attended the meeting to provide support to Slot, who made the OIPP’s submission. They were Jimmie Lee of International Poultry Inc. at Welland, Joe Abate of Abate Packers Ltd. at Arthur and Harry Fennema of Lowbank Farms at Hagersville.
The OIPP asked for the hearing to have the commission reconsider its decision about the membership of a new advisory committee to the Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board. The AOCP was granted three memberships, the marketing board three and the commission three, with one of the commission members to serve as chair. The OIPP was not included.
Slot argued that the OIPP had been involved in previous discussions about the key issue of chicken board allocation of limited supplies to processors, that it had been regarded as a co-operative partner with the chicken board whereas the AOCP refused to participate and refused to sign a draft memorandum of understanding and therefore the OIPP has earned the right to be included in the current committee which is developing a new vision for the Ontario chicken industry.
Turkstra and Rob Wilson, lawyer for the chicken board, said the committee has made great strides in developing the new vision which, they said, will be unveiled in a matter of weeks or months, that there is a fresh spirit of co-operation that has not existed in the past and that the OIPP would be “disruptive” should it be added to the committee.
Under cross examination from Slot, the AOCP and chicken board witnesses could not cite any evidence that the OIPP has been disruptive in the past.
The key development in the industry is an agreement in principle between Ontario and Quebec to stop the increasing volume of live chicken movement from one province to the other. It reached about 10 per cent of production before the two marketing boards imposed a temporary ban on any increase in inter-provincial trade.
Quebec’s government supervisory agency has yet to approve the deal. If it does approve, then the Ontario chicken board will be asking the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission to approve its part of the deal.
It will feature new policies for allocating chicken supplies to processors. Members of the OIPP fear that their access to chicken will be curbed even more than it now is.
