Laplante loses in court

Laplante Poultry Farm has lost its bid to have a court overturn an appeals tribunal ruling last year.

Laplante wants to expand its poultry processing business and sought tribunal and court approval for chicken that was being processed by Remy Poultry Inc.

But Remy sold its plant supply quota to Riverview Poultry Ltd. of Smithville and both the tribunal and the court have ruled it can’t go to Robert Laplante’s company.

The plant supply quota has effectively moved from Eastern Ontario into the Niagara Peninsula.

Laplante has been seeking another 286,553 kilograms of base quota from the Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board. He has 156,449 kilograms.

The entire plant supply quota system is controversial. It has left some Ontario processors chronically short of chicken; that was especially problematic for small-scale processors developing niche markets.

Alberta has argued that Ontario ought to scrap the plant supply quota system and allow open competition among processors for Ontario’s limited supply of chicken production.

But when that was the policy, processors bid higher and higher prices, well above the “reasonable return” that is supposed to be the standard for supply management.

Laplante has been ordered to pay court costs of $10,000 to the chicken board and $25,000 to Riverview.

One wonders how this whole complex network of regulations is going to cope with intense competition from imports if and when import restrictions are relaxed via international trade agreements.