It's almost a year since public hearings on the renewal for general farm organizations in Ontario took place at the boardroom of the Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeals Tribunal.
And the tribunal has still not issued decisions.
The last time I checked, and that was months ago, the chairman said the decisions are in the process of being written and that we'll know what those decisions are when they are posted on the tribunal's website. It seems they are slow writers.
The farm organizations would obviously like to know what's up, but they're not pushing because in the meantime the tribunal has said they can continue to function just as they were.
That's hardly satisfying, especially in the case of the Ontario branch of the National Farmers Union because former executives filed complaints that it's well outside the four corners of the regulations.
Those complaints prompted the tribunal to open another round of public hearings for that organization. And there has been no decision on that, either.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, the NFU and indirectly an association for French-speaking farmers all depend on legislation that enables them to collect annual fees from all farmers in Ontario who want to continue to receive OMAFRA subsidies and services.
And the legislation requires those general farm organizations to be certified by the province, and periodically re-certified under the tribunal.
But who, other than Premier Dalton McGuinty and the current agriculture minister, holds the tribunal accountable? And, guess what. The premier and the agriculture minister choose the members of the tribunal.
