Decision of Supreme Court Will Not Deter Nadeau Poultry from Pursuing Solution to New Brunswick Chicken Industry Regulatory Woes

ST. FRANCOIS-DE-MADAWASKA, N.B, Dec. 23, 2011 /CNW/ - Fast on the heels of the Supreme Court of Canada's dismissal of Nadeau Poultry's application to hear its case, Nadeau Poultry's General Manager, Yves Landry, has announced that the decision, although disappointing, will not deter the company from continuing their efforts to compel the New Brunswick government to bring about a fair solution to the instability that exists in the New Brunswick chicken industry.

"The two issues are entirely separate issues," said Landry, "If the New Brunswick government had not failed to properly regulate the chicken industry as required by law, then we would never have had to resort to going to the courts."

Landry says that the conclusion that has been drawn and promoted by Groupe Westco that the court decisions allow them to sell their chickens wherever they want, and that the courts support Westco, is grossly exaggerated and a very liberal interpretation of the rulings.

"All the court proceedings looked at was a very narrow section of the Competition Act, namely a section called 'refusal to deal'. Nothing more was dealt with.  For example, none of the court proceedings ever dealt with the issue of whether or not the New Brunswick government was compliant with the legislation that it is signatory to. We know it is not, so these decisions in no way abdicate the New Brunswick government of their legislated obligation to provide orderly marketing of chicken in the province given that it is a regulated commodity in Canada," said Landry.

Court action was Nadeau's only recourse, given the New Brunswick government's refusal to appropriately regulate the industry, when Groupe Westco diverted almost 80% of the provincial supply of chickens from Nadeau Poultry, New Brunswick's only chicken processor, to Quebec in 2008. The Competition Tribunal was Nadeau Poultry's only practical avenue of relief when a quick solution was needed in order to save the 365 jobs at the plant. Nadeau Poultry went forward with their complaint to the Competition Tribunal under section 75 of the Competition Act, Refusal to Deal.

The decision of the Competition Tribunal, dealing exclusively with a very specific area of the Competition Act, simply stated that Nadeau Poultry failed to establish certain technical elements that were required to constitute a 'refusal to deal'. The inability to fulfill those technicalities was directly related to the fact that the chicken industry operates under a supply management system which prevented Nadeau from being able to meet all requirements. The Tribunal's decision was upheld by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal. Nadeau hoped that the Supreme Court would hear the case to resolve the clashes between these two national legislative schemes, namely, the supply management system and the Competition Act. Groupe Westco's conclusion that the court decision affirms the legality of its intent to build a vertically integrated monopoly in the chicken industry in New Brunswick is without basis.

In fact, the New Brunswick government has remained steadfast in its refusal to comply with the requirements of the 2001 Federal-Provincial Agreement for Chicken, the piece of legislation that governs the National chicken supply management system. By Federal-Provincial legislation, the government is required to provide an orderly marketing system for chicken - a controlled product in Canada - that works in the balanced interests of producers, industry processors and consumers. That is not happening in the province's chicken industry.

"Clearly the government's current stance on this matter is biased towards the interests of a corporate producer (Groupe Westco) at the expense of the province's processing industry and New Brunswick consumers. The government must implement a solution that fairly allocates New Brunswick grown chicken to any and all processors in the province. This will promote competition in the industry and ensure that New Brunswick grown chickens are made available to New Brunswick consumers as was intended by the supply management system," said Landry.

About Nadeau Poultry:
Located in the small community of Saint-François-de-Madawaska in northern New Brunswick, Nadeau Poultry is a family-owned, modern chicken processing and packaging facility. Nadeau Poultry has been providing Canadian families with healthy, wholesome chicken for their dinner tables for more than 50 years.

For further information:

Yves Landry, General Manager, Nadeau Poultry
[phone] or
[phone] (mobile)
[e-mail]
www.nadeaupoultry.com

Carol Gardin, Corporate Communications Officer, Maple Lodge Farms Ltd.
[phone] ext. 2478 or
[phone] (mobile)
[e-mail]
www.maplelodgefarms.com