Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 26/99) - To oversee egg production in the North, a Northwest Territories Egg Producers Board has been established, a Territorial Farmers Association spokesperson confirmed.

One of the key functions of the board,set up under the territorial Agricultural Products Marketing Act (March, 1998),

is to divide up the 115,000 bird quota or decide on a plan to bring the number of egg layers in the NWT down to the 115,000 mark.

The problem is past estimates from the North's two egg producers put the number of egg-laying chickens in the NWT at about two times the quota.

The 115,000-bird quota was established in 1997 under a federal-territorial agreement.

Wednesday, Chris Gostick, project officer with the TFA in Hay River, said minutes of the first meeting had yet to be approved by all board members. As a result, he could not readily comment on details of the meeting.

The organization's inaugural meeting was held in Hay River, April 16.

Gostick did say Roy Fabian, former Hay River Dene Band chief, will serve as board chairman.

The organization's executive also includes Hay River Dene Band Chief Pat Martel.

Frank and Marjorie Richardson and Gary Villetard are other directors.

The Richardson family runs Northern Poultry in Hay River.

Villetard co-owns Dene Eggs, located just outside Hay River. Dene Eggs is 49 per cent owned by Villetard and 51 per cent owned by the Hay River Dene Band.

For the past 15 years, Richardson and Villetard have been in and out of court over egg production in the North. The pair fought the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency.

They wanted control over the number of eggs they produced and freedom to sell their products across territorial-provincial boarders.

The egg duo won in NWT supreme and appeal courts. But Canada's Supreme Court decided for CEMA.

The Supreme Court decision meant Northern Poultry and Dene Eggs could not sell eggs outside the NWT without a CEMA quota. But because they were not part of CEMA they could not get a quota.

Northern producers argued CEMA's position was unconstitutional.

The irony of the egg battle is that the NWT was not included in a 1972 federal-provincial agreement which established CEMA. There were no egg producers in the NWT at the time, so apparently, no one thought to include the territories.

But, says Villetard, it turns out the NWT is one of the cheapest places in Canada in which to produce eggs.