There are challenges for other sectors of our industry. The $50 million announced in the federal budget to strengthen slaughter capacity has caused frustration for many federally inspected plants, including Atlantic Beef Products, because the federal government is either unsure of or unwilling to release the details of this program. This is also the case with the $500 million agriculture flexibility program. Without the parameters for these programs, opportunities to access this funding may be missed.
On the national scale, the beef cattle industry is facing challenges from its primary export market, the United States. The U.S. has implemented COOL, or country-of-origin labelling. This has created challenges for both the Canadian cattle and hog industries, which rely heavily on export.
COOL requires segregation of cattle before slaughter and labelling of beef after slaughter. This has created extra work for U.S. packers and uncertainty in the marketplace. As a result, many of them are refusing to accept live Canadian cattle.
Producers shipping live cattle to the U.S. are facing additional processing fees as a result of COOL, estimated at $90 per head. In the Maritimes there is less dependency on U.S. slaughter to market our animals; however, some who relied on this market in the past are finding it less profitable to market their animals there.
The option to slaughter cattle in Canada also has its drawbacks. Canadian slaughter costs producers an estimated $150 per head for fees and regulations, such as the handling of specified risk materials, something U.S. producers do not have to pay.
We would like to close by saying thank you for allowing us to present to you today and by restating that we are actively seeking solutions to help address the challenges we face by working together to develop a long-term plan for the maritime red meat industry. However, we need our governments to work with us to develop funding strategies that will preserve what we have left and to help restore our industries to the healthy and viable industries they once were.
Thank you.