The BSE crisis has shocked the Manitoba cattle industry into facing up to an old failing it had almost forgotten until May 20, 2003.
Until that date, Manitoba cattle producers could count on feedlots in Alberta, Saskatchewan, the United States and Ontario bidding for their feeder cattle. And beef slaughter plants in the U.S. were a quick and easy place to sell worn-out cows and bulls.
But when the border closed after the discovery of BSE in Alberta, Manitoba producers learned that they were ill prepared to face the crisis.
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“Manitoba cattle are the last in line to be slaughtered,” mused Manitoba Progressive Conservative opposition member Glenn Cummings after his party unveiled a BSE aid package proposal. “It was all too easy when the American border was open.”
The Tories proposed Sept. 9 to provide tens of millions of dollars to local abattoirs to expand and improve, and for the construction of more slaughter capacity in Manitoba.
Manitoba’s New Democratic Party government has also been trying to help abattoirs increase production to clean up extra cattle in Manitoba for which there is no processor.
Haunting the minds of politicians and Manitoba cattle producers is the grim realization that Manitoba once had Western Canada’s major beef packers, but through a combination of factors, the industry in the province faded and was reborn in Alberta.
There are no major beef packers in Manitoba. The ones in the United States are cut off by the border closure. And most Manitoba beef producers find they don’t have the long-term relationships with Alberta packers to help get their cattle get slaughtered promptly. Alberta and Saskatchewan producers are ahead of them in the queue.
“We certainly face the biggest challenge,” said Betty Green, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association, in an interview Sept. 13.
No one in the Manitoba government, the official opposition or the MCPA has proposed building a world-scale plant like those in Alberta. But producer groups have been trying to set up a mid-size kill plant and politicians have been trying to find ways to help the small town abattoirs expand and achieve federal licensing.
Tory leader Stuart Murray said about $50 million could create enough new abattoir space that a lot of the BSE crisis’ damaging effects could be mitigated.
“This plan will not only save the industry, it will allow it to expand and flourish,” Murray said.
Cummings said Manitoba’s small abattoirs are killing at below capacity, held back by their lack of federal licensing.
“They don’t have the markets locally, but they can see markets over the provincial border,” he said.
Green said expanding all the province’s abattoirs could help Manitoba cattle producers get onto sounder footing, and could at least improve their situation to that of cattle producers in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
“It would be a significant help,” she said.
But still, lingering, will be the knowledge that Manitoba once had the big packers and lost them.
