Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal

1Stone Road West Guelph, Ontario

Tribunal d’appel de l’agriculture, de l’alimentation et des affaires rurales

N1G 4Y2 Tel: (519) 826-3433, Fax: (519) 826-4232 Email:Tribunal@OMAF.gov.on.ca

1, chemin Stone Ouest Guelph (Ontario) N1G 4Y2 Tél.: (519) 826-3433, Téléc.: (519) 826-4232 Email:Tribunal@OMAF.gov.on.ca

AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS APPEAL TRIBUNAL

APPEAL:

Elite Swine Inc. et al. v Ontario Pork Producers' Marketing Board

Elite Swine Inc. et al. v OPPMB [Motion Order] 2004 ONAFRAAT 37

STATUTE:

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Act

HEARING:

DATE OF DECISION:

October 28, 2004

2004-37

NEUTRAL CITATION:

2004 ONAFRAAT 37

Elite Swine Inc. et al. v Ontario Pork Producers' Marketing Board [Motion Order]

IN THE MATTER OF THE FARM PRODUCTS MARKETING ACT AND SECTION 16 OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS ACT:

AND IN THE MATTER OF: Appeals to the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal by Elite Swine Inc., Cold Springs Farm Ltd., Progressive Pork Producer’s Co-operative Inc., Selves Farms Limited and Synergy Services Inc. from a decision of the Ontario Pork Producers' Marketing Board (OPPMB) not to rescind its decision to increase the service charge on all Ontario hogs by $0.80 per hog in its Board Regulation 9-2004 Schedule B.

Order of the Tribunal

Ruling on a Motion by the Ontario Pork Producers’ Marketing Board requesting that the hearing be made closed. Our decision in this matter is that the Tribunals general rule is that all hearings are held in public. However, in this matter the Tribunal accepts Mr. Foran’s argument that there may be serious legal consequences should privileged information be inadvertently disclosed. With this in mind, the Tribunal is of the view that the public interest is best served in this case by holding the hearing in camera and adopting the following procedures:

1. That all parties, parties’ representatives and witnesses sign an undertaking not to disclose any information deemed as privileged. Information may be in the form of oral or documentary information.

2. The undertaking must be signed before attending the in camera session.

3. We also require that those in attendance keep confidential, any notes they make that they are not allowed to make any copies of documents or notes that they may receive, and that they are to return all documents to the party that tendered them or to the Tribunal as the case may be.

4. We order that the court reporter also be required to sign the undertaking.

5. In the interest of public access to our proceedings we will allow any information not deemed to be privileged to be made available through the court reporter at the earliest opportunity. The Tribunal orders that the cost for the initial transcript be borne by the Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board. This document will be on file in the Tribunal office and additional copies can be purchased directly from the court reporter. During the course of the hearing, the Tribunal expects Mr. Foran to identify privileged information to allow the court reporter to make appropriate breaks in the reporting process. The Tribunal orders the court reporters tape to be returned to the Tribunal and that it will be destroyed by the Tribunal once the transcript is finalized. The court reporter is ordered to remove and destroy all references to the hearing from any computers and other data storage devices including computers and tapes to the satisfaction of the Ontario Pork Producers’ Marketing Board.

6. We further order that all privileged documentary evidence tendered during the hearings and any transcript of privileged evidence be sealed and kept separate from the public hearing record.