by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 05/97) - Canada's egg marketing agency wants to bring the North's two egg producers into their fold, but they won't come without a fight.

That fight -- essentially over setting quotas for eggs sold across provincial and territorial borders -- will move to the Supreme Court of Canada May 30.

Both Northern producers, Pineview Poultry Products Ltd. and Northern Poultry, are based in Hay River. Because of a loophole in a 25-year-old federal marketing plan, neither must live with quotas for selling their eggs, as producers in all provinces must.

"And because they're not listed in the plan, they've been marketing freely into the provinces," says Neil Currie, CEO of the marketing agency.

"Our plan allowed a quota to provinces based on historical production. In '72, the historical production for the NWT was zero, therefore they weren't named," explains Currie.

But federal regulations stipulate that a quota must be established before an egg producer can engage in inter-provincial trade.

"Meanwhile, we're trying to negotiate (with the territorial government) that the NWT be in the plan," adds Currie.

The Northern egg producers have a different take on the issue: "All our clients want to do is produce eggs," says Katherine Hurlburt, a lawyer representing the eggs producers. After all, she adds, they represent just one quarter of one per cent of national production.

Enter the government of the NWT.

"The government of the Northwest Territories intervened on our behalf as well. They're supporting this side of the battle. Their argument at trial is for the development of Northern industry," says Hurlburt.

"When the legislation was put in, it never occurred to anybody there would be egg production in the NWT," she says.

Meanwhile, the legal costs have been mounting for both producers.

Gary Villetard, a partner in Pineview's operation with the Hay River Dene Band, questions CEMA's rationale for pursuing this case over the past decade or so.

"To this day, they (CEMA) never sat down and talked to us about the issues," he says.

Villetard says the Supreme Court date later this month will mark the 27th time CEMA has put him before a judge. He says the only ones benefiting are CEMA's lawyers and suggest the marketing agency could have settled the matter years ago.

"They ran up our legal costs," he says. When asked what they are he replies: "You don't want to know," and adds that he wonders how the federal government can let this continue.

Villetard says the Supreme Court appearance won't be the end of it either.

"Then it will be a series of civil suits for damages," he says. "We're a resilient bunch."