JAFFREY, B.C. – Getting turned down for grant money to build an abattoir in southeastern British Columbia is a setback but not a knockout for local livestock producers.
Producers intend to keep fighting for a $500,000 grant from the Columbia Basin Trust fund to support a multi-species, provincially inspected plant in the Cranbrook area.
The plan calls for a non-profit co-operative, and extra money is needed to comply with new meat inspection regulations coming into effect next September.
Farm Credit Canada approved the main loans required to build the rest of the project.
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Faye Street, an area rancher and part of the group spearheading the project was disappointed, but is not willing to let it end.
She believes a higher level of food safety regulations and the equipment to upgrade plants are necessary for all facilities, whether existing or new.
“We need to have our product produced in clean facilities. We need to have them inspected, but we can’t afford it,” she said.
Local MLA Bill Bennett supports a local plant because the closest meat facilities are a four hour drive away in Alberta or in Salmon Arm, B.C.
Bennett said the group asked for a community development grant through the trust and should now approach the board differently by asking for a long-term business loan. The B.C. government does not provide funds for private business.
The trust is an independent body created to compensate local people for a series of dams built in the 1960s.
“In this situation the people involved don’t believe an abattoir can be sustained if the business model is based on 100 percent loans as opposed to a mix of loans and grants,” said Bennett. “I suspect they are right, so the challenge is finding them some money they don’t have to pay back,” he said.
The problem is linked to the new meat inspection regulation enacted in September 2004.
By Sept. 1, 2006, anyone who kills animals to produce meat for human consumption must have either a provincial or federal licence. Farmers who slaughter their own livestock for personal consumption are exempt. Under the new rule they would no longer be able to sell meat to the public.
The only parts of the province where meat inspection exists is in the Lower Mainland and Okanagan Valley.
The new rule has affected butcher shops owned by people like Barbara and Jurgen Konig. They own a meat shop at Invermere, B.C., specializing in sausages and precooked, marinated meats that are ready to eat or heat at home.
They also have a cutting and wrapping business but do not kill on site. They do not have the desire or space to open their own plant.
If there is no regional inspected abattoir, they might be forced to lay off two butchers who are handling custom cutting for farmers who killed their livestock on the farm.
“Without having an abattoir that lets you guys bring in your livestock, and then shipping to us, we will never be able to get those products that we would love to promote,” Barbara Konig said.
Right now the Konigs are buying Alberta beef, New Zealand lamb and Manitoba pork.
“We would love to sell local beef, local pigs, local chicken, but right now we are not because it is not inspected. I do not want to touch meat that isn’t inspected,” she said.
