EDMONTON – If the Alberta government transfers its livestock inspection service to a private agency, a northern Alberta producer wants guarantees that farmers across the province will pay the same price to have brands checked.
“Am I going to have to pay more to have inspection in the country,” Gary Creelman asked during a resolution debate at the Alberta Cattle Commission’s annual meeting held here last week.
“It’s not unusual to have to travel 150 miles to inspect 100 head of cattle. It’s easier to sit in an auction mart and inspect 2,000 at no expense,” said Creelman, who raises and sells cattle in the northern town of Fairview.
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But Dale Wilson couldn’t give Creelman any long-term guarantees that brand inspection fees will remain the same throughout the province.
“In the short term it’s very realistic, but setting up a private corporation, how do you know what the industry will want in the future?”
Wilson is the cattle commission’s vice-chair and representative on the transition team looking at privatizing the service.
“We feel we can do a better job and cheaper than the government.”
Later, delegates passed a resolution to encourage the minister of agriculture to transfer livestock inspection services to a not-for-profit corporation by July 1998, or as soon as possible.
Get it done quickly
Wilson said it’s important to fast track the transfer of inspection services. There are now six other organizations who want a private brand inspection agency and they don’t want to give anyone the chance to change their minds.
“The longer you take, the greater chance someone will have to change their mind,” said Wilson.
He also said waiting may hinder the chance of creating a national livestock identification service because of worries people may gain access to identification records through provincial access-to-information laws.
Wilson said a private inspection service would be cheaper and more efficient than the present system of about 80 full and part-time brand inspectors who inspect four million head each year.
“It’s intended not to lose money. If it makes money the fees will be reduced or service improved.”
There were questions from other delegates if all the present powers, including the ability to arrest, looking after stray animals or monitoring the fence line act, would transfer to the new private organization.
“That’s being debated,” said Cliff Munroe, head of livestock marketing services with Alberta Agriculture. “The power of arrest may still be available.”
Creelman said if the government demands a brand inspection when producers apply for the Livestock Patrons’ Assurance Fund, which guarantees producers 80 percent of their money back if a dealer goes broke before they get paid, then the government should insist on a universal inspection fee.
Cliff Wulff, head of special products with agriculture’s production and marketing sector, said there is a lot of work to be done before any legislation could be drawn up.
The transition team wants legislation introduced during the spring sitting of the Alberta legislature, which begins in January.
“The objective is to have it through the legislature and have in law and running by July.”
British Columbia has privatized its brand inspection service as did the Canadian Meat Grading Agency, which will be the model for Alberta’s new service.
