The National Farmers Union has failed in its attempt to avoid a $250,000 financial blow.
The NFU’s Ontario wing had appealed an Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal ruling from last year that denied the NFU-O the right to be designated as a recipient of Ontario farmer registration fees, depriving it of hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual revenue it has received for almost two decades.
However, tribunal vice-chair John O’Kane rejected the appeal in June.
He ruled that the tribunal was correct in deciding that the provincial wing does not meet the definition of “representing farmers in the province” because of the national NFU’s role in setting national policy and taking money from the NFU-O’s stable funding revenue.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
NFU-O president John Sutherland argued that the relationship between NFU head office in Saskatoon and the Ontario organization is not “top down” as the tribunal ruled.
“In fact, it’s exactly the opposite.”
He said Ontario members approve policy resolutions that direct the provincial council.
The tribunal ruling means the NFU-O will not have access to the more than $450,000 a year in stable funding it has received from 2,400 Ontario farmers who asked that their $195 registration fee be directed to the Ontario NFU. The fee has been required since 1993 for access to government programs.
It was one of three farm organizations, along with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, that were recognized under the Farm Registration and Farm Organizations’ Funding Act.
It has been the largest NFU affiliate.
However, the tribunal ruled late last year that the NFU-O was no longer an eligible organization because as a branch-plant operation for the national organization, it does not “represent” Ontario farmers as the law requires but merely takes direction from the national organization.
NFU-O leaders challenged the decision, arguing the organization does represent its members and they choose it as their representative.
Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is also Ontario’s agriculture minister, sent a letter to the tribunal supporting the NFU-O’s appeal of the decision.
In an interview earlier this year, former NFU-O president Ann Slater said Ontario’s exclusion from the provincial stable funding program will stifle membership but also deprive the national organization of essential funding.
Ontario NFU sent $243,000 to the national office in 2011.
