After several years of intensive lobbying efforts, the South Cariboo has finally secured a local meat abattoir for provincially-inspected, red-meat slaughter.
Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick announced the news in the District of 100 Mile House council chambers on Feb. 22.
The abattoir will reinstate a local capacity for licensed slaughter of beef, lamb, pork and goat. Letnick said it can facilitate processing up to eight head of cattle each day.
While it is a mobile unit, the abattoir will be permanently installed at a local facility, he explained, such as a facility already offering cut-and-wrap services.
“It’s yours for as long as you need it.”
Letnick attributed it to the hard work and lobbying efforts of Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett, who along with local slaughter advocates Christine Jordaan and Diane Wood, approached him shortly after he became agriculture minister last fall.
“The case was very compelling. The costs to local farmers were much higher, as compared to other places, and it was also a cost in the [transportation-related] distress to the animals.”
Barnett said the current transport expense is “exorbitant” and every animal moved also loses weight from the stress.
She added the unit is already constructed and she will ensure it gets installed before this May’s election.
“We’ll have it in eight or 10 weeks.”
The abattoir will mean “success” for local producers, she explained, and allows smaller operations with job-subsidized incomes to continue producing locally and retain their land in the Agriculture Land Reserve.
Barnett was a little choked up when she talked about what it would mean to her constituents, more than 600 of whom sent her letters in support of local slaughter capacity.
“For the South Cariboo, this is wonderful news.”
The abattoir will belong to a community association (yet to be identified) that will be responsible for operating costs, which can be recouped from user fees, Letnick explained.
Barnett passed on much of the credit to Jordaan and Wood, who have been key in various proposals put forward during the past several years and lobbied extensively to promote the need for local red-meat slaughter.
Letnick noted 100 Mile House is the only British Columbia community that will get a permanently installed, mobile red-meat abattoir initially, but upon its full implementation, other communities may apply for one if they can demonstrate a similar need and meet criteria.
He said it is part of a $5.6-million program the province is unrolling to be fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2014, to replace provincially-licensed abattoir inspections currently performed under contract by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
It will see the hiring of 43 inspectors, as well as further training, monitoring and record-keeping at Class A and B licensed facilities, as well as programs marketing the meat to retail stores and restaurants.
The program will also see a two-year pilot program in the North Okanagan for up to five additional Class E licenses and a B.C. Meat marketing strategy through local grocery outlets.
Jordaan said she’s hopeful the abattoir will allow the South Cariboo to “finally move forward” in strengthening the local economy and food security.
“We had been asking the government to introduce a new level of licensing that would allow for legal slaughter, farm gate sale and personal use, through veterinary inspection. What the minister announced on Friday is, in fact, better than that proposal … since the [Class B-licensed] mobile unit will allow producers to sell into restaurants and retail as well.”
An abattoir is an essential piece of infrastructure for a rural community, she explains, so having no access to local slaughter last season was a “huge struggle” for producers.
She credits Barnett’s crucial “beating of this drum” in Victoria, for which Jordaan said she is sincerely grateful. Jordaan added Letnick has also devoted considerable time and effort to finding fair and reasonable solutions to the multitude of challenges facing the industry.
