Quebec has lost a
bid to extend its supply-management control of maple syrup to a company in New
Brunswick.
The New Brunswick Court of Appeal says
in a written decision released last week that Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup
Producers' limits on the amount of sap and syrup Etienne St-Pierre can buy
don't apply in the East Coast province.
The appeal decision upholds an earlier
decision by the Court of Queen's Bench in Fredericton, which said the attempt
to apply the quotas to St-Pierre's company in Kedgwick, N.B., didn't apply.
The Quebec injunction was originally
issued by the Quebec Agricultural Marketing Board after the federation filed a
complaint against St-Pierre in 2007.
But the New Brunswick courts have
refused to accept the board's decision and its ratification by a Quebec court
as having jurisdiction in the province.
Justice Alexandre Deschenes wrote the
Court of Appeal agreed with earlier rulings that the federation was trying to
extend Quebec regulations into a separate jurisdiction.
