Is This Fair?

[farmers_son]

Regarding the Alberta Livestock and Meat Strategy…

May 2003 North American had its first positive domestic case of BSE after a cow tested positive in an Alberta provincially inspected plant. At that time, and afterwards as more BSE positives turned up in Alberta, there were calls that the country should be divided in some fashion into zones with Alberta the BSE positive zone and the rest of the country would still be BSE free. Suggestions included segregating the country at the Manitoba Ontario border but also there were suggestions that the lines should be drawn at Alberta’s borders. The rest of country would trade internationally while enjoying a BSE free status.

Those calls were quickly rejected as the country stood together and said this is our problem, we stand with Alberta for better or worse. Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes shouldered the burden of BSE with the rest of the country. As a country we worked to see normalized trade resume with the United States as well as internationally into Japan, Mexico and a host of other countries.

Last June 6 our Alberta Ag Minister announced the new Alberta Livestock and Meat Strategy. Now that trade is reopening Alberta is seeking to create a competitive advantage. I would ask a competitive advantage over who? Saskatchewan and BC? Manitoba and Ontario? These are the provinces that stood by us when we were in our darkest hour. Rich Alberta is going to go it alone. Well, we never had to go it alone in May 2003.

No matter what you may think about more or less government involvement in the cattle industry or what should be left to the marketplace or what should be regulated by government, I think most would agree that the Alberta announcement of a provincial strategy without cooperation or consultation with the other provinces or the Canadian government or any consideration of the impacts of the Alberta announcement on our Canadian partners who stood by us at great cost to their own respective jurisdictions is simply not fair.

[smcgrath76]

Amen to that. Kevin Grier's article Alberta Ouest pretty much hits the nail on the head.
Still trying to figure out where/how our cows in SK fit into the picture for us.
If they were serious about cooperation perhaps they could have worked on harmonizing interprovincial meat inspection services so some of our good local plants (in every province) could grow. There are several US states working on this right now.
I have said before, I feel bad for the producers in other provinces who may be forced into doing all of the required steps without even the hope of a government cheque, let alone one from the marketplace.

[kato]

Exactly!

What I'd like to know is where is the Federal Government in all this??????

This should have been a federal program, rather than just another fracture in what is supposed to be a national cow herd.

This is not the first time it's happened either. When we started in the cattle business, the packers were pretty much all in Winnipeg, and they were all Canadian companies. Then along came oil money, with it's incentives, and the multinational pirates moved on in. They outbid the Canadian plants until one by one they closed down. Just think about it for a minute. A new plant, just built, with a lot of startup costs. It can pay more money for cattle to be hauled eight or nine hundred miles for slaughter than a plant that is local, established, and not in debt. Doesn't make sense, does it? But it happened, and it happened with financial aid from the Alberta government. Aid that was given to corporations who really didn't need it either.

We already do a lot of the things the Alberta program asks for, but have yet to see much of a return for our work. What I'd like to know is how is this going to affect the prices we get for our calves? Or our fats? Do we register with the Alberta government? Or do we just have a referendum and make the Prairies one big province before Alberta becomes it's own country.

[grassfarmer]

Come on folks, it seems we are now clutching at straws to discredit this program. This isn't the first program since May 2003 that has received more funding in Alberta than producers in other provinces got. It's the first time I've heard Alberta producers complaining about the fact though.
If the plan is as bad for Alberta producers as F_S claims - adding a huge burden of cost with no potential benefit wouldn't producers in other provinces be better of than us now as they won't have to comply?? Seems you can't have it both ways - the program is bad for AB producers and the rest of the country is missing out because they are not included in it just doesn't make sense.

I thought it would have been better to have been a federal program too, but if the Feds aren't prepared to do anything I think it reasonable that the minister of agriculture in Alberta go batting for his producers. I would have been more disappointed if he had sat back and done nothing, that's the usual problem with politicians and agriculture.

[smcgrath76]

If the AB program becomes the standard, it is pretty hard to forget that over 2/3 of the cattle are fed here and nearly 100% are killed in AB. If AB puts specific requirements on these entities, then that becomes the cost of doing business in the prairie region. The other provinces do not have a competitive advantage, they now have a competitive disadvantage and they may finish more cattle at home, or may send more calves stateside for feeding and harvest. Cattle will go where the greatest margin is.

[kato]

Right now in Manitoba we have two options. Alberta or the U.S. That's it. At the moment neither one is looking very good.

It would be nice to know how this will affect us. It's been so long since we had any kind of certainty in this business that we've forgotten what it's like to be able to plan even a couple of months in advance.