The Alberta government is expected to introduce legislation to transfer the responsibility of farmed cervids from the sustainable resource development branch to agriculture.
Like other provinces, farmed cervids in Alberta have been considered both wildlife and domestic livestock with deer and elk producers being ruled by both government departments.
When the new law is introduced in the legislature this spring session, it will start the process of removing all responsibility from the Wildlife Act under Sustainable Resource Development and shift it under the Livestock Industry Diversification Act in the agriculture department.
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Glenda Elkow, chair of the Alberta Elk Commission, said the move to the agriculture department is a logical step that their industry has been advocating for years.
“Everything absolutely belongs there. We’re an agriculture industry,” said Elkow of Lloydminster.
The goal of the Sustainable Resources Management branch seemed to be market restriction, not market development,” she said.
“Their philosophy is more about how to keep from moving animals anywhere. The ag department is all about trade and market access,” said Elkow, who hopes the move will open new opportunities for the provinces’s 260 elk farmers and their 16,800 animals.
Under the old act, if a farmed animal escaped from a fenced area, the ownership of the stray animal would revert to the crown. That will be eliminated under the agriculture department.
“Nobody does that with other farmed animals,” she said.
“It’s way too complicated the way it is.”
Elkow said the move to agriculture is a groundbreaking move by the provincial government and should be applauded.
Once legislation is introduced and passed, the job of rewriting the regulations begins.
“Being voted on is a big first step.”
Alberta agriculture minister Jack Hayden said the move to agriculture was a logical step.
“It will put them in the same category as other domestic animals. It’s long overdue as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
