The federal government is allocating $1 million from money announced last September for beef industry “repositioning” to help farmer-led groups prepare to build or expand ruminant slaughter plants.
Money will be available from Agriculture Canada to help prepare feasibility studies, business plans or marketing plans and to cover other non-construction start-up costs.
Agriculture minister Andy Mitchell said in the Aug. 17 announcement it is part of the government’s determination to expand the domestic slaughter industry to reduce reliance on shipping slaughter cattle to the United States.
The start-up assistance, first announced June 29 along with help in some provinces to move older cull cows to market, will be restricted to producer-led groups trying to build a new plant that meets federal inspection standards or trying to upgrade a provincial plant to federal standards, allowing its output to be sold across Canada and internationally.
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It will help them hire experts to assess whether their proposal has a chance to be successful, given market realities and competition from a newly open border.
“This program is a key element in helping producer groups ensure that a reasonable return on investment can be secured before investing significant resources in slaughter facilities,” he said.
Funding from the Ruminant Slaughter Facility Assessment Assistance program will be capped at $99,990 per project.
If each group proposing a new or improved facility used its maximum, the federal money would help 10 projects get off the ground. The funding offer ends Dec. 31, 2007 unless demand uses up all the money first.
Details have not yet been worked out of other parts of the beef industry repositioning strategy announced in June, including plans to help ease the cull cow oversupply in eastern provinces that indicated they are willing to cost share.
