It may be law to pay the $3 a head checkoff each time a bison is sold in Alberta, but it’s collected on less than half the 11,000 animals sold and from only a handful of the more than 15,000 animals slaughtered.
“If we got $3 for every animal slaughtered in Alberta, we wouldn’t have a penny problem,” said Linda Sauntner, manager of the Bison Producers of Alberta.
Large bison producers refuse to pay the fee because they believe they do their own marketing. Smaller producers don’t pay because they don’t think it’s worth the paperwork. Only one provincial packing plant and none of the federal slaughter plants collect the fee when they slaughter bison and only some of the 780 bison producers in the province remember to send in the mandatory but refundable checkoff to the provincial office.
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“It’s a nightmare,” said Sauntner.
“We do have large number of producers regularly send in their payments. As much as I am so grateful to these people, I feel badly that they’re doing it and the rest of the group isn’t.”
Sauntner is the only full-time employee at the commission.
“We do know there’s a tremendous amount of slippage in the private sector.”
The commission survives on the fees sent in by producers, the three auction markets where bison are sold (Vold Jones Vold in Ponoka, Sekura Auction in Drayton Valley and Willowview Auctions in Beaverlodge) and H & M Meats in Grande Prairie, which is the only provincial slaughtering plant collecting and submitting the levy.
About $17,000 of the commission’s $74,000 annual budget comes from levies. The rest is collected from promotional items, memberships and provincial grants.
When the commission and the checkoff were established in 2000, producers paid a $4.35 levy when they bought ear tags. Of that total, $2 was sent to the Canadian Bison Association and the rest was kept by the provincial organization. Some producers soon realized they could buy the same bar coded ear tag from the local farm supply store without paying the levy. While check-off collection dropped, Sauntner estimated the Alberta commission collected about 70 percent of the levies from sold and slaughtered animals.
When BSE hit the country’s livestock producers in 2003, producers lobbied for a change in the way the checkoff was collected. Instead of paying the fee when they bought the ear tags, producers wanted to pay the mandatory but refundable fee when they sold their animals, the same as cattle producers. In 2004, the commission listened to the producers and the law was changed.
The Canadian Bison Association now collects $4 per mandatory ear tag to run the national organization. Each region can apply for $2 of that fee for special projects.
At the same time as producers began lobbying to change the fee collection, the provincial and national organizations began fighting over the payment of the levy. The two organizations ended up in court, where the provincial organization lost and a lot of ill will was generated.
“It really did a tremendous amount of damage to our industry,” said Sauntner.
Some tension lingers and led to the problems the organization faces today. While it’s the law to pay the fee, Sauntner is reluctant to use a stick to enforce it.
“I’ve had three provincial plants tell me, ‘if you push this I’m not taking another bison through my door.’ “
One provincial plant said while it won’t take off the fee, it will submit a list of the animals slaughtered and leave it to Sauntner to chase down the money.
Sauntner believes more producers would pay the fee, but when they only take one or two animals in to be slaughtered, they forget about submitting it.
“For some they’re not avoiding compliance, it’s just another piece of paperwork and administration. This just doesn’t strike as being a high priority.”
But it affects the commission. When Saunter began working for the bison group, there were three full-time staff in the Leduc office. Except for a bookkeeper, who works one day a month, Sauntner is the only employee left.
“We’re working on a minimum budget.”
While the bison association has approached the provincial government’s Alberta Product’s Marketing Council, the department in charge of the 20 boards and commissions, there is little the council can do beyond writing a letter.
“Where is the teeth to reinforce this?” she said.
Recently the group tried to use a carrot approach to encouraging producers to pay the fee. The association hired marketer George Gonzo to develop new bison products, promotional items, help with website development and other ways for producers to see value in the organization.
“If we could do more for them, I think they’d be more inclined to send it in,” Sauntner said.
