Ontario’s egg producers are riled up about how their
marketing board is handling quota issues.
The hottest topic is the board’s policy of grabbing any
increase in Ontario’s allocation from the national agency and then leasing that
quota to producers who file an application.
Before this new policy, the board used to distribute any
allocation increase from the national agency on a pro rata basis among its
quota holders. It would be a percentage increase.
Under the new policy, the leasing is on a flat rate, the
same amount for every applicant when there are more applications than the total
amount of quota available for lease.
The new policy means the small quota holders get a big
percentage increase while the large ones get a miniscule percentage increase.
The money paid for the lease goes into the marketing board’s
coffers and means producers face lower levies (taxes on every dozen eggs they
market) to pay the board’s operating costs.
Another hot issue is the board’s June 7 moratorium on quota
transfers.
That’s in place while members are consulted about a board
proposal to run a quota exchange. It would force all quota that’s for sale or
purchase to run through the board’s administrative system.
That’s raising concerns among a lot of farmers who prefer to
deal with neighbours when buying or selling quota. That’s particularly true in the
close-knit Mennonite communities where members of families and congregations
prefer to deal among themselves.
There are also concerns that introducing a board-run system
similar to the one adopted by Quebec will, as has happened there, result in
hardly any quota transfers.
All of this is taking place with a backdrop of an investigation,
launched by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, into the governance
of the marketing board.
There are indications that the board of directors is
asserting more control during board meetings, clipping the wings of general
manager Harry Pelissero who has tended in the past to dominate board
discussions.
