A Fraser Valley chicken farmer is crying foul that she was first in line for free range egg licences -- even spending $50,000 on a new chicken barn -- but then was sidelined for people who are at least a year away from production.
Willy Driesen says the four-year delay in awarding the licences and a further delay in actually raising the chickens means the B.C. Egg Marketing Board isn't serious about increasing free range egg production in this province to match increasing demand -- and she's on the hook for it.
"We spent just under $50,000 to get all the equipment and labour to put this barn in place," she said from her Chilliwack chicken farm. "We didn't do that thinking we were going to stay with just 300 birds."
Four years ago, Driesen applied to the B.C. Egg Marketing Board for a licence for 2,000 more chickens to lay free range eggs. The Board controls the number of eggs of each type that farmers can produce by awarding quotas.
She was trying to take advantage of a program that was meant to increase free range egg production among new entrants to the market in response to increasing demand at the grocery store. Roughly two licences would be handed out each year.
Driesen upgraded her barn because she was expecting to be awarded the next licence. But then the board decided to change their system from a waitlist to a lottery. When the board finally announced the licences in March -- more than three years after the system changed -- her name wasn't on the list.
Now she tends 390 chickens in a barn designed for thousands.
"We really thought we couldn't lose. But then the rules changed. We felt it was really unfair," she said.
The Egg Marketing Board says the idea was to make sure the licences were given out fairly. Under the current system, anyone in B.C. who owns property and can demonstrate to the board that they have a business plan to produce eggs is eligible to enter the lottery.
"I think it's an open and transparent system as it could possibly be," said Richard King, the board's chair.
CTV News has learned that of the four people who won the lottery -- Geertie Fictorie, Janita Minderhoud, Jeremy Vaandrager, and George Vander Veen -- one, Vander Veen, has no farm property and is at least a year away from production.
Another farmer, Jeremy Vaandrager, is the son of Jack Vaandrager, a former board member.
In an interview with CTV News, Vaandrager said his father's connections had nothing to do with his win.
"There's no connection, he had nothing to do with it, and I only told him after the fact that I had applied," he said. "I had the same chance as everyone else."
Vaandrager already tends the chickens his father owns and plans to purchase the chickens from his father to put under the new licence.
King said that Vaandrager won fair and square.
"Just because your father is involved in the production of eggs doesn't disqualify you from entering the lottery," he said. He added that the lottery is conducted by an independent marketing company and this should alleviate concerns that the process of awarding licenses is biased.
The B.C. Humane Society says that questions about the allocation process show the board isn't serious about producing free range eggs in this province.
"The fact that the Driesens were not given a permit to produce humane eggs is shocking," said Leanne McConnachie. "They exemplify the kind of producer that consumers want to see."
She said the board has to increase the number of free range eggs faster.
"I think the supply management system needs to get in touch with what consumers want -- more humane eggs," said McConnachie.
Driesen says she will appeal to the provincial government to step in and help her.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
