Sean McGivern, founder of Practical Farmers of Ontario, is openly
challenging the authority of the Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board.
On Aug. 14, he wrote the board, with a copy to the legal
advisors to the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, that he intends to
start growing 2,000 chickens per year on Dec. 1., and without quota.
He says “I do not accept your dominion” over all producers
of chicken.
In a letter dated Sept. 14, Sandy Roulston, manager of
regulations and standards for the chicken board, answered in detail why
McGivern will be risking legal action if he goes ahead with his plans.
Roulston cites authority the chicken board has been granted
by the Ontario government to regulate the production of chicken and its
authority to inspect premises and issue injunctions to prevent people who do
not own quota from growing and marketing chicken.
Roulston also dismissed McGivern’s claim that the chicken
board is operating as a private business.
McGivern wrote back in a letter dated Sept. 10 that if the
chicken board is a public institution, then its annual meeting ought to be open
to the public and that anybody who grows any chickens in Ontario ought to be
able to present motions and vote.
McGivern and his Practical Farmers of Ontario organization
have joined with the Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada to lobby for a
change in chicken board regulations to allow people who grow up to 2,000
chickens per year without owning quota.
