The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario will be
“considering all options” when the board meets soon to review the tribunal’s
denial of its application for accreditation under the province’s stable-funding
legislation.
It’s the second time this year that the tribunal has
rejected the CFFO applications and leaves its funding in limbo.
President Lorne Small said the CFFO “is a vibrant
organization, with or without stable funding.”
One of the options might be simply walking away from the
system and returning to direct membership.
Small said “that’s certainly not the
preferred option”. It takes months of effort and a lot of money to recruit
members.
That’s why the Ontario Federation of Ontario and the CFFO asked
the government to set up a system to collect annual membership fees from
farmers.
The tribunal issued its first denial decision in May and
Small said the CFFO “answered every issue raised” in that decision “in
considerable detail” and said this decision, issued to the CFFO on Wednesday
“raises new issues” about membership that go back to May, 2011.
Based on its reasoning in the CFFO decision, the tribunal is
likely to soon issue denials to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the
Ontario branch or the National Farmers Union.
