Thank you, and good afternoon. I am James Bekkering, chair of the National Cattle Feeders' Association and a feedlot owner in Taber, Alberta. I am joined by Janice Tranberg, president and CEO of the National Cattle Feeders' Association.
NCFA was established in 2007 as a unified voice for Canadian cattle feeders. We are a business- and solutions-oriented organization focused on sustainable growth and profitability, improved competitiveness, and industry leadership and partnership.
Agricultural supply chains are under tremendous pressure and are negatively impacting national food security. In the beef industry, much of the current stress stems from two challenges: securing critical farm inputs, especially feed, and keeping cattle and beef products moving smoothly through the supply chain.
Last year's drought was unprecedented, causing significant shortages of livestock feed and resulting in a surge of feed imports from the U.S. Increased feed demand, along with fires and floods in B.C., has exposed weaknesses in our transportation systems, such as inadequate unloading infrastructure and lack of storage facilities.
Transportation bottlenecks are magnified by a severe trucker shortage, which is expected to triple by 2023. In addition, recent protests that stopped traffic at the Canada-U.S. border and labour stoppages at CP Rail have added further stress to the supply chain. The recent CP Rail labour disruption caused severe angst on my farm and on many others.
In Alberta, we have only a one- to two-week supply of feed grain available, and cattle cannot easily switch their diet in a healthy way, even if other feed grains are available. It was difficult to watch my family farm go through this—we wondered how we would feed our animals, especially when CP Rail and the union had the option to enter into binding arbitration and allow rail movement to continue. While we recognize the right of Canadians to strike, the Government of Canada must declare rail an essential service when animal welfare is on the line.