The federal government may be prepared to make its stringent SRM removal policies less of a competitive hurdle for the Canadian livestock industry.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz says he recognizes that new regulations that came into effect this year governing specified risk material impose costs that competitors, particularly the United States, do not face.
He has hinted that government will be looking at ways to help, possibly by “pulling back” on some SRM rules or helping packers find economic uses for SRM material now discarded, including creating energy through biodigesters.
Read Also
Organic farmers urged to make better use of trade deals
Organic growers should be singing CUSMA’s praises, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
However, Ritz said he is not willing to comply with a cattle and packing industry proposal that government find another $50 million to help offset SRM removal costs.
Ritz told the House of Commons agriculture committee in mid-December that the proposed $50 million on top of a $130 million federal-provincial fund that already exists to help offset costs would not make its way back to farmers.
As an alternative to more government money, he mentioned a visit to the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, where a biodigester is converting waste into biodiesel that can power the plant.
“Those are the types of things that I think are going to help us in the long run and I think will do far more to re-stimulate the economy than those $50 million that there’s really no program or plan on how that would be applied,” he told MPs.
He said Canada had to move aggressively because borders were closed after BSE was detected in Canada in 2003.
“We’re looking at different ways of addressing the SRM situation and maybe taking certain products away,” he said.
“We’ve actually been overqualified on SRM removal at this point as compared to our competitors.”
Ritz later told a news conference that Canada has led the world in imposing strict SRM and traceability rules.
“We are now in a situation where our traceability is working very well, we are a minor risk country agreed to by all of the trading nations around the world and we’re seeing an opportunity to maybe pull back on some of that SRM removal,” he said.
Ritz did not elaborate but said later there is no intention of reversing the SRM removal policy.
He also said he will have a report from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency by the end of January outlining what it charges the livestock sector for services and how that compares to fees in the U.S.
The Commons agriculture committee had asked the government this fall for an accounting of the cost of inspection services in plants and at the border.
The minister said it is being done and he may act if disparities are obvious.
“They are looking at every regulation, every cost and comparing it to our major trading partner and seeing what the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) does and doesn’t charge for what they do,” he told MPs.
Ritz acknowledged that the American government absorbs the costs of providing some services that the Canadian industry has to pay for in service fees.
“Even if the dollars aren’t as significant as we think because there has been a moratorium on cost recovery for the CFIA since the mid-’90s, it’s more the psychological benefit to say that we’re not doing that any more,” he said.
“Certainly, I’m more than willing to have a look at it.”
Ritz said one possibility is “a year-by-year holiday on some of those regulatory costs and that’s what we’re working with right now.”
