Letter to Dombrowsky, Minister of Agriculture, in response to the changes of the Milk Act as of Dec 24 2004

September 9, 2005 (Toronto, Ontario)

September 9, 2005

The Honourable Leona Dombrowsky
Minister of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs
Government of Ontario
77 Grenville Street , 11 th floor
Toronto , Ontario M5S 1B3

Dear Minister:

I wrote to you sometime ago on behalf of VOIC members concerning regulations to the Milk Act that your government introduced in December 24, 2004 and which came into force on January 1, 2005 . These regulations restrict trade in dairy beverages and blends that combine dairy and vegetable oil ingredients.

As we said in our letter, these regulations are barriers to interprovincial trade, inconsistent with the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) and ignore the findings and advice of an internal trade panel on Ontario 's Edible Oil Products Act (EOPA) . We asked that your government withdraw these regulations and ensure that, in future, the Milk Act is used only for its intended purpose, which is to regulate standardized milk products and not products that are manufactured from dairy and vegetable oil ingredients.

Although you have not responded to this request directly, we have the strong impression that your government intends to continue to regulate and restrict the manufacturing and marketing of products that combine dairy and vegetable oil ingredients even though this is inconsistent with Ontario 's AIT obligations.

Since this is the case VOIC has decided to ask the government of Alberta to challenge: (1) the regulations introduced through Regulation 443/04 that came into force on January 1, 2005; and (2) the use of the Milk Act to regulate products that contain dairy ingredients but are not standardized dairy products.

A copy of our letter to the government of Alberta is attached. As you will see, VOIC has asked Alberta to apply the terms of Article 906 (Consultations), the first step in the AIT's dispute resolution process, to try to resolve this issue with Ontario . These consultations could take as long as 90 days, which, given the findings of the panel on Ontario 's EOPA , should be adequate time to resolve this matter. It would be unreasonable and a waste of time and money for this matter to be considered by a Panel.

We hope that your government will resolve this issue as soon as possible so processors can develop and market new and innovative vegetable oil based products that will meet consumers' nutritional needs, increase consumer choice and benefit oilseed producers and processors in Ontario .

Yours sincerely,

Sean McPhee
President

cc Hon. Ed Stelmach