The chairman of the Quebec chicken marketing board says in a
newsletter to members that he’s holding out for an increase as part of a new
deal to carve national production into provincial shares.
The provincial boards have agreed in principle to allow
“differential growth” and have used population increases as a yardstick.
That will give Ontario and Alberta most of the increases,
but Quebec would lose some market share.
Now Quebec is saying it wants a larger share based on the
situation in Eastern Ontario where decades ago a number of chicken farms were
established without quota to market birds to processors in Quebec.
When the Ontario chicken board discovered those barns, it
tried to shut them down. There was a political crisis and the temporary
solution was the creation of national quota administered by the national agency
for those Eastern Ontario producers.
Later the Ontario board incorporated their production into
the Ontario quota system, but in practice the birds continued to be marketed to
processors in Quebec.
When Ontario and Quebec reached a new deal to stop
inter-provincial trade in live birds, these Eastern Ontario farmers were part
of the solution. About 700,000 units of quota moved from Ontario to Quebec.
Now the Quebec marketing board chairman says that’s not
enough. He wants closer to 2.5 million units to be shifted from Ontario to
Quebec, a total that is closer to actual production from the farms in Eastern
Ontario.
This new demand is linked to the new allocation to provinces
made by the national agency, not to the no-trade pact between Ontario and
Quebec.
And the Quebec chairman is linking this demand to another
argument – that the population of the Ottawa Valley and Eastern Ontario ought
to be considered part of Quebec’s allocation from the national agency, not
Ontario’s.
On that basis, Ontario would not gain any increase in market
share and Quebec would not lose, but gain, market share.
This is sure to be one of the hottest issues when the
provincial marketing boards meet in Ottawa this week.
The first meetings will be of the marketing boards only.
Later there will be meetings that involve industry partners, such as processors
and further processors.
None of this information about Alberta, Ontario and Quebec
has been included in newsletters from the Ontario chicken board, or posted on
its website.
In a related move, the association that represents
small-scale chicken processors in Quebec has written an open letter to the
association that represents the large-volume chicken processors complaining
that the Ontario-Quebec ban on trade in live birds, combined with aggressive
purchasing of Quebec birds by Nadeau Poultry Ltd. of New Brunswick, is leaving
them short of enough birds to meet their needs.
They say they understand that Olymel and Maple Lodge Farms
are in a battle for birds to supply their processing plants in New Brunswick,
but say they are suffering as innocent victims.
They are pressuring the Quebec processors and marketing board
to either get more birds from Ontario or find them in Quebec to meet their
needs.
While the small-scale processors in Quebec have a recognized
association to negotiate, the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission has
refused to give a similar organization for small-volume processors in Ontario
status and membership on the Chicken Industry Advisory Committee it chairs.
