Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAuley says five Canadian companies have lost their licences to import spent fowl from the United States.
But he did not name the companies, nor did he reveal the length of their licence losses.
The Canada Border Services Agency administers the licensing.
Chicken Farmers of Canada and other provincial chicken marketing boards have been complaining for years that not all of the chicken declared as spent fowl, and therefore exempt from hefty tariffs, are what the importers claim. They believe many of the chickens are broilers which should be subject to the tariffs of more than 260 per cent.
The national agency said two years ago that the volume of imports of spent fowl exceeded the total U.S. volume of spent fowl.
I am asking the Canada Border Services Agency for the names of the companies and the length of time for which they lost their licences. I'm not holding my breath while I await an answer.
But I am pretty sure that at least one of Ontario's two largest poultry processors is guilty.
