Glenn Black is appealing to Ontario Agriculture Minister
Jeff Leal to over-turn the most recent appeal tribunal decision that went
against Black and his efforts to increase the limit from 300 to 2,500 birds per
year that farmers can raise without owning marketing-board quota.
More specifically, Black is asking Leal to order the
tribunal to allow him to go ahead with his appeal against the Chicken Farmers
of Ontario marketing board.
The tribunal has ruled that his appeal is too broad and has
told him he should limit it to the issue of the 300-bird cap.
The tribunal has also said it lacks jurisdiction to deal
with many of the issues Black raises, issues that amount to a broadside attack
on supply management.
In his letter to Leal, Black says that allowing farmers to
raise up to 2,500 birds per year without needing quota would create up to
430,000 jobs and would take up no more than 10 per cent of the Ontario chicken
market.
He says it would take decades for small flock owners to
reach that volume of production, so there would be plenty of time for supply
management to adjust.
He notes that there are 1,410 chicken quota holders, but
more than 15,500 small flock owners, and that these farmers all hold one vote
each.
He suggests that the large-volume quota-holding chicken
producers could develop export markets. However, the World Trade Organization
has ruled in a dairy-industry case that Canada’s supply management system is a
subsidy for producers and therefore they are banned from exporting.
Black notes that First Nation communities suffer a much
higher incidence of food insecurity (33 to 61 per cent compared with 8.4 per
cent for the overall Ontario population) and would benefit from being able to
produce their own chickens and eggs. He has included plans for housing and
management on his website, http://canadiansmallflockers.blogspot.ca
.
This is the first time Leal has been asked to use his power to
upset a tribunal decision. It’s a power that has rarely been used by an Ontario
agriculture minister.
