Geri Kamenz is leaving at the
end of the year as chairman of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission.
He was president of the
Ontario Federation of Agriculture before taking the political appointment as
overseer of marketing boards eight years ago.
He has been in hot water this
year for proposing changes that would strip the Ontario Processing Vegetable
Growers Association of its collective bargaining powers.
Farmers rebelled and Ontario
Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal eventually cancelled the proposal.
Kamenz said the move to a
free market system was needed in order to stop the decline of the industry.
In announcing his departure,
Leal said "we appreciate Geri's
leadership in providing direction and governance and thank him for his
commitment in serving our agri-food sector and the people of Ontario over the
past eight years.”
Kamenz also stepped on the
chicken board toes, saying farmers could not justify the premiums they were
garnering in a market that was chronically short of chicken.
That led to several
controversial interventions, such as rationing supplies among processors, then
banning imports of live chicken from Quebec. Quebec did the same for Ontario
chickens.
That policy has yet to be
challenged as a violation of free interprovincial trade championed for decades
by provincial premiers and Canadian prime ministers.
Kamenz also ordered an
inquiry into governance at the egg marketing board, but has never revealed any
reports from the investigation which may, or may not, be ongoing several years
after it was commissioned.
The milk marketing board
implemented two highly-controversial measures under his watch – a cap on quota
prices and regulations to allow for lower-priced milk to stem the tide of
imports of milk fractions.
