The document Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) has filed with the federal court indicates it wants a public hearing into the way quota is allocated among the provinces.
The original complaint was filed by the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council (CPEPC) with support from CFC, but the council has since withdrawn from the application for judicial review.
They both wanted the National Farm Products Council to hold a public hearing, but the council refused. The chicken agency has also filed for judicial review of the quota allocation the national council approved on July 10 for quota period A-93, which began in the summer.
The issue goes back at least one step further to when Bill Smirle, then chairman of the national council, set up a committee in the fall of 2008 to deal with chicken production targets and the way the pie is then divided among the provinces.
Smirle did that in response to complaints from the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council about the quota allocations set in June 2008.
Smirle chaired the committee that was comprised of the chairs of CFC, the CPEPC, the Further Poultry Processors Association of Canada, the Canadian Foodservice and Restaurant Association and the executive director of the national council.
Smirle is no longer with the council. All council appointments are made by the federal cabinet via Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. CFC took its complaints about the council to Ritz.
No date has yet been set for the judicial review. Nine of the 10 provincial marketing boards have filed documents with the court. The exception is Saskatchewan.
