Glenn Black of Providence Bay, Ont., has threatened a
lawsuit against the Ontario chicken marketing board, the national chicken
marketing agency and federal and provincial governments.
He claims the way they have run marketing boards has gouged
the public and hurt small-flock owners. Black runs a blog for Canadian Small
Flockers which speaks for thousands of people who keep chickens for meat and
egg production.
Black and the members of the organization have been seeking
an increase from 300 to 2,500 birds that Ontario people can raise every year without
having to buy quota which is the instrument the marketing boards use to
restrict production so they can charge prices that are roughly three times as
high as in the United States.
Quota for the minimum-scale farm the Ontario marketing board
will allow costs about $1 million.
Black has outlined the case he will try to establish in
court if the marketing boards and governments refuse to act on a long list of
issues he has been raising.
In his claim for damages, he notes that the Ontario Farm
Products Marketing Commission ruled last summer that the Ontario chicken
marketing board has inflated prices by claiming it takes more feed than is
actually required to raise chickens.
The commission ordered the marketing board to reduce its
feed conversion ratio (the amount of feed required to grow a kilogram of
chicken) by 16.3 per cent.
Black says he became aware of that inflation of costs and
prices in March; the price rollback came in August.
He says the inflated prices lasted 10 years and calculates
that increased costs for Canadians by $318.55 per person.
He also notes that even the current feed conversion ratio
the Ontario chicken board is using (1.82 kilograms of feed per kilogram of bird
weight) is 18 per cent more than the New Zealand chicken industry where the feed
conversion ratio averages 1.38.
Black alleges that the federal and provincial government
have failed in their duty to adequately supervise the Ontario chicken board and
the national marketing agency and that the national agency and Ontario board
have abused their powers and have violated the public’s constitutional rights.
Black is awaiting responses from the accused before deciding
whether to pursue the lawsuit.
