The Ontario government has given $800,000 to the Chicken
Farmers of Ontario marketing board to buy German software to gather
supply-chain data for the chicken industry.
This is the dumbest government grant I’ve seen in a long
time.
First, what makes the chicken board a logical manager for a
supply-chain information system?
The only supply-chain partners the chicken board seems to
consult is the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors.
It certainly works hand-in-glove with the AOCP, even
assisting in its ham-handed efforts to stifle competition from small-volume
upstart processors who actually pioneer new chicken products and find niche
markets.
Can the chicken board point to any meaningful consultation
with further processors, supermarket chains, restaurant chains or foodservice
companies?
Does it consult them about the volume, quality and type of
chickens they want before it approaches the national agency for allocations?
And why, pray tell, are we using taxpayer dollars to buy
German software when we have one of the world’s leading computer-studies
universities in Waterloo?
And why, in any case, does the chicken board need a
government handout, especially when it boasts long and loud that because it has
supply management, it doesn’t need government subsidies?
