Ferme Benoit Lachaine Inc. (FBL) sold its entire milk production quota in six separate transactions. Under the 15% quota transfer assessment policy of the DFO, FBL did not receive $367,055.21 from those six quota transactions. An appeal to the DFO was unsuccessful and so FBL appealed to the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal. The Tribunal decided the case on the following basis:
While we are not bound by the several previous Tribunal exemption decisions, we feel it appropriate to list the factual differences between the FBL circumstances and those previous cases:
Benoit Lachaine continues as an active farmer
Benoit Lachaine was not killed in an accidentenoit Lachaine did not suffer a catastrophic injury that ended his farming career
Benoit Lachaine does not have a terminal disease
Benoit Lachaine did not have a plan to exit the industry interrupted by the November 2006 policy
A significant part of FBL's case was based on financial hardship. Without deciding that financial hardship could be the basis for an exemption, we find no evidence of financial hardship.
Based on all the evidence we find that FBL has not satisfied us that there is anything sufficiently "special" about Benoit Lachaine's foot condition to warrant an exemption from the 15 percent quota transfer assessment.
Read the decision at:
Ferme Benoit Lachaine vs Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO)
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