Cattle marketers and the Manitoba government crossed swords last week over a planned new beef levy, with each side questioning the motives of the other.
The province announced in March that there will be a new $2 per head beef levy collected to increase slaughter capacity in Manitoba. The Manitoba Cattle Enhancement Council is being established to direct spending of the producer money, which will be matched by the provincial NDP government.
“Why is it that the government feels it’s necessary to force producers to fund business proposals like this through a head tax?” asked Rick Wright, an auctioneer speaking on behalf of the Manitoba Livestock Marketing Association.
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“The membership of our association strongly feels and unanimously agrees that these expansions should be funded by private enterprise and not through a head tax on cattle being sold in the province.”
Wright made his comments during a meeting in Brandon, one of three held in the province last week to gather producer sentiments on the issue of the new beef levy. In an interview afterward, he noted that the NDP government established a beef commission in the 1980s that took over the marketing, promotion “and basically the production” of all slaughter cattle in Manitoba.
The formation of the beef commission “just about crippled” the livestock marketing industry, Wright said, but it didn’t save the beef packing industry in Manitoba.
Bill Uruski, a former NDP agriculture minister, is one of three people already appointed to the enhancement council. Uruski orchestrated the beef commission in the 1980s, said Wright, “and that puts a little fear into us.”
The Manitoba Livestock Marketing Association became involved in the debate over the levy at the urging of producers, he said, and because of the potential effects on auction marts and livestock dealers. Livestock marketers will be expected to collect the levy for the cattle enhancement council, despite what they consider a lack of consultation from the province while planning the initiative.
“If left unchecked, it gives them carte blanche to make any changes they want down the road without consulting the industry,” Wright said.
However, Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk questioned the motives of those suggesting the cattle enhancement council will have free rein. She described that as fear mongering, and cited measures that will hold the council accountable, including an avenue to appeal its decisions.
“I don’t anticipate that this council is going to go wild and do things that are going to hurt the industry,” Wowchuk said.
About 1,000 people attended the Brandon meeting, where many comments were critical of the mandatory, nonrefundable beef levy. The critics said the province is robbing producers of the right to choose.
Wowchuk was not swayed by the criticisms and said there will not be a producer vote on whether to implement the levy and it will not be made refundable.
“It was the buyers who were speaking up, buyers who are tied to particular packing facilities,” she said.
“I sense that they really don’t want to see slaughter capacity in this province and have to question whose interests they are really looking after.”
Harvey Dann, a Manitoba-based cattle exporter, was among those wondering about the need for more slaughter capacity. He said federally inspected packing plants in Canada are operating at only 70 percent capacity while provincially inspected plants are running at 50 percent capacity. Meanwhile, there are an extra 100,000 hooks in U.S. packing plants, he said.
Regardless of the surplus slaughter capacity elsewhere, Wowchuk said Manitoba remains vulnerable because of its dependence on packers outside the province. It has little federally inspected cattle slaughter capacity of its own.
She said the beef levy and cattle enhancement council will address producer concerns about too much reliance on markets in Alberta, Ontario and the United States.
“Our producers will be less reliant on out-of-province processors and Manitobans will have better access to local processing facilities. Rural Manitoba will benefit from the local development that takes place.”
However, Dann was among those pointing to the struggle in recent years to get ventures like Rancher’s Choice off the ground. Despite more than two years of effort, the proposed cull slaughter plant at Dauphin, Man., still does not have enough producer support to move forward.
“I don’t know why people try to make water run uphill,” Dann said.
