Tribunal chairman Glenn Walker has set out a new set of deadlines to get the appeal filed by Ron Van Loon and his Sandy Lane Farms Inc. back on track.
It went off the rails because Van Loon failed to file a formal request for documents from the Dairy Farmers of Ontario marketing board by a deadline Walker set out during a previous pre-hearing conference with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal.
But Van Loon told Walker that he sent e-mails to the milk board’s lawyer, Geoff Spurr, on Nov.1 and 8 and got no response.
Spurr said he got one of those e-mails, but a formal request for documents was not filed by the deadline so he considered the appeal was dead.
What Walker did was set a new deadline of Dec. 20 for Van Loon to file an amended appeal and another pre-hearing conference Jan. 12 where either side can file motions and counter-motions.
Spurr told the tribunal that Van Loon should not require any additional documents to those the milk board already filed when it dealt with Van Loon’s hearing, then a re-consideration hearing, at the board level.
