CATTLE producers asked for help and the Alberta government, true to form, responded.
On the face of it, the $356 million proffered – $150 million of it immediately – is good news for those in the Alberta cattle business. But a few other elements in the province’s long-term strategy could prove problematic for its own producers and for those in other provinces. It also has national implications that require a more considered assessment.
Other provinces are pressured to follow suit whenever one among them provides funds in response to a larger crisis. And perhaps this will be one of the few times in recent years when Saskatchewan, now collecting unprecedented revenues from oil and gas royalties, will be able to follow Alberta’s lead and assist its livestock producers.
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The time is ripe, because estimates provided by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan indicate up to 40 percent of the province’s livestock producers could be lost through the convergence of negative factors involving market conditions, dollar value, feed prices and the looming threat of country of origin labelling. Manitoba producers face the same scenario and will be pressuring their government for more aid.
The Alberta government’s plan to form a livestock and meat agency is one troubling aspect of its June 5 announcement. It’s unlike the province’s governing party to create more bureaucracy, let alone an arm that, at least in early description, seems to ignore the expertise and extensive labour already exerted by Alberta Beef Producers and the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to ensure industry sustainability and open or reopen international markets.
However, the aspect of Alberta’s plan with the greatest implications is its intention to connect funds with an age verification program.
On the one hand, distributing half the money only to those who age verify their cattle is a clever stoke. It rewards desired behaviour while avoiding the issue of mandatory age verification that most cattle producers dislike.
On the other hand, it smacks of a bribe. What becomes of premiums now enjoyed by Alberta cattle producers who choose to age verify? They are likely to be erased by the new program. What becomes of cattle shipped to Alberta from provinces that have no incentive to age verify? Will they be discounted? Marketed differently?
There appeared to be more consternation than approval last week among cattle producers in response to Alberta’s program announcement. That might be a product of unfamiliarity with the details of the program, which could well have been hastily organized in the face of industry calls for assistance.
But more likely it is a result of disappointment that there isn’t a national program for the red meat industry that encompasses some of the same elements of the Alberta program.
A national program involving a response to COOL, a directive on age verification and a plan to reopen international beef markets would be far preferable to a program initiated by one province, however well intentioned it may be.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
