Monday, June 9, 2014

Black will file new appeal


Glenn Black is going to take advantage of the appeal tribunal’s offer and will be filing a new appeal.

He made the announcement on is blog for small flock owners this week.

The tribunal dismissed his original appeal, agreeing with lawyer Geoff Spurr representing the Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board that it was too broad in nature, that some of the issues are beyond the jurisdiction of the tribunal and that some issues are more properly pursued as a class-action lawsuit.

But the tribunal is allowing him to file a new appeal against the chicken board’s denial of a request filed the Progressive Farmers of Ontario association to allow people to raise up to 2,000 chickens per year without requiring quota. The limit now is 300.

One of the issues for the chicken board is that any increase it grants for small-flock owners must come out of its provincial allocation from the national agency.

In other words, a gain for the small-flock owners is a loss for the much larger commercial farmers, all of them now with investments valued at more than $1 million.