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Copyright © 2001 Eastern Ontario Farmers Forum Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Non-quota farmers plan to sue DFO
Tribunal turns
down non-quota producers
The Farm Products Marketing Tribunal
has turned down an appeal for a class action suit against Dairy farmers of
Ontario (DFO). The farmers want to be reimbursed for over quota milk sent
to the board. DFO pays farmers for about 103 per
cent of production. Any more than that goes into a pot and is
re-distributed to all quota holding milk producers. Non quota holders don’t
get anything for milk marketed through the board. The farmers pushing the suit are
mostly non quota holders who say the board has taken their milk and sold
it but they have not been reimbursed. In its ruling, the Tribunal said its
jurisdiction is based on enabling statutes. A class action suit can only
be commenced in the Ontario Court, it said. The Tribunal ordered that a decision
of September 3 of DFO would not be stayed, where non-quota holders were
required to shut down and not be paid for their milk. The order would be
effective retroactively to the time the appeal was brought to the
tribunal. It further ordered that the
non-quota farmers document an appropriate level of compensation. The next
hearing should be held in Guelph within 60 days, and other farmers can
join the suit. In his argument, lawyer for the farmers, Donald
Good, had argued that the policy on over quota milk was tantamount to
expropriation and there was no legal authority for the
The group, calling itself, Dairy Farmers for Justice, consists of 13 farmers, all east of Toronto, from Spencerville to Sunderland.
They now plan to sue Dairy Farmers of Ontario for millions in provincial court, says non-quota producer Bill Denby. Denby has been in nasty legal wranglings with the DFO for months.