The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal has ordered the Ontario Sheep Farmers marketing board to produce a host of documents, including all correspondence with other provincial sheep marketing boards, for an appeal filed by Albers and Lynch, sheep marketers based on Alberta.
Albers and Lynch pay fees to the Alberta sheep board and object to having to pay an Ontario fee when they sell to customers in Ontario.
As part of its submission, lawyers for Albers and Lynch have included information supplied in an affidavit by Fred Baker, former chairman of the Ontario board, about a challenge Saskatchewan filed in 2004-05 against the Ontario fee. It was settled by a “gentleman’s agreement” under which Ontario used fees collected on out-of-province sheep to be applied to national promotion campaigns.
Ontario cancelled that agreement in around 2013-13, Baker has testified.
The tribunal has made the following orders:
- OSF shall search its records and produce to the appellants copies of documents between OSF and any out of province producer regarding exemptions from OSF license fees on the purchase/sale of lambs, sheep or wool in Ontario for the period between January 1, 2017 and the present.
- OSF shall search its records and provide to the appellants copies of documents related to any exemption from OSF license fees provided to Ontario sheep, lamb or wool producers, including current or past members of the OSF Board of Directors for the period January 1, 2017 to the present.
- OSF shall search its records and provide to the appellants copies of documents between OSF and any regulatory authority in the province of Quebec, including LEOQ, regarding OSF license fees and/or exemptions on the purchase/sale of lambs, sheep or wool in Ontario, but produced in Quebec.
- OSF shall search its records and provide to the appellants copies of documents between OSF and any other provincial lamb, sheep or wool organization regarding exemptions from OSF license fees on the purchase/sale of lambs, sheep or wool in Ontario.
The OSF has until Dec. 15 to produce the documents.
A date has yet to be set for the tribunal hearing.
