Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) announced it is extremely disappointed by the decision of the Court of Appeal of Ontario, released April 20, which denies the request for appeal on the dismissal of the case surrounding the Ontario government’s seed treatment regulations.
“The decision is both frustrating and disheartening for myself, our farmer-members, and the grain industry,” said Mark Brock, chair of GFO.
“While the result is not what we hoped for, the judgement acknowledged that farmer rights have been negatively affected by this regulation and that it does create legitimate hardships on grain farmers in this province.”
GFO defended its farmer-members’ rights to the highest court possible within the province and the judgement recognizes that there is no legal remedy for regulatory decisions, such as this one, made by government.
The seed treatment regulation, and the precedent it sets for regulating farm inputs, has a significant and detrimental impact on agriculture in Ontario. While the GFO board of directors will have further discussion regarding an appeal, it has decided to immediately engage BDO to conduct an audit of the impact of these regulations on Ontario’s grain farmers.
“To ensure the government truly understands how decisions like this impact our businesses, and with the goal of improving how agricultural policy is formed in the future, we are commissioning this audit and we will regularly inform the government of findings throughout this study,” said Brock.
“This issue remains a top priority for (GFO) and we will continue to engage government on this topic today and into the future.”
