Alberta bison producers reeling from a combination of low prices, drought and BSE have been slammed again with a fire at one of only two federally inspected packing plants that slaughter bison in the province.
A fire at North West Foods in Edmonton July 5 destroyed much of the slaughter facility that killed 60-70 percent of the bison in the province.
“It’s been another devastating blow to our industry,” said Linda Sautner with the Bison Association of Alberta. “We have absolutely no place to go.”
Each month, 200 to 800 bison designated for stores and restaurants across Canada and Europe were slaughtered at the plant. It was the designated plant for animals older than 30 months, so the meat was eligible for sale only in Europe or within Canada. Bison younger than 30 months of age, for the American market, are slaughtered at the Bouvry plant near Fort Macleod.
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“That whole market now is stopped and our people in Alberta haven’t got a market for these animals,” said Sautner, who had hoped federal and provincial officials would temporarily relax the rules to allow animals slaughtered in some of the province’s 52 abattoirs to be exported outside the province.
Cliff Munroe, head of the regulatory services branch with Alberta Agriculture, said the chances of relaxing the federal regulations to allow interprovincial movement of beef or bison, even temporarily, would be “slim or nil.”
There are no provincial plants that would be able to quickly switch over and meet the federal standards, he said.
The nearest federal plants that kill bison are in Abbotsford, B.C., and Winkler, Man.
Gary Fakeley of Naturally Canadian Bison Products, which supplies bison to high-end restaurants, said federal and provincial politicians don’t understand how serious the loss is to bison producers.
Since the plant burned, the Bison Producers of Alberta has tried to get a meeting with government officials. With the closure of the border due to BSE 14 months ago, live bison shipments across the border stopped and meat sales are the only markets.
“I don’t want to sound critical of Ralph and the boys, but I don’t think they have a clue how devastating this was to our industry,” said Fakeley, referring to the Alberta premier.
After several days of phone calls, they arranged a meeting with deputy prime minister Anne McLellan, but with no resolution.
“There is absolutely zero interest in what’s going on here,” said Fakeley. “I get very frustrated.”
Since the fire at North West, the waiting list for slaughter has increased from four or five months to six or seven months.
The bright spot is that officials with North West Foods plan to rebuild the Edmonton plant.
Dave Rae, president and co-owner of the plant, said he hoped the plant will be rebuilt by January or February and be able to slaughter four times as many animals. The plant slaughters elk, bison and cattle.
“Our plans are to rebuild. We’re in the cleanup mode right now. We’re working on plans for the new plant,” said Rae.
