Thank you.
My name is Judith Guichon and I'm the president of the B.C. Cattlemen's Association. I brought our manager, Kevin Boon, along with me today. If my voice gives out, I'm sorry; he may have to take over.
The British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association would like to thank the Standing Committee on Finance for this opportunity to present the needs of the British Columbia cattle industry.
The cattlemen's association has been the official voice of cattle ranchers throughout British Columbia since 1929. For over 80 years, the association, with about 1,200 members now, has represented the interests of beef cattle producers in British Columbia. We represent the people who feed you.
The purpose of the B.C. Cattlemen's Association is to promote, encourage, protect, and develop the cattle industry in British Columbia in an environmentally responsible manner. Although times have changed since 1929, the BCCA's direction remains the same: to maintain and strengthen the sustainability of the B.C. beef industry.
The past decade has been extremely challenging for the cattle industry in all of Canada. Through its support programs, this government has been very engaged in working with our industry as it is trying to regain its viability, and the input has been key to our survival. The support has come in ways other than financial, but without sound financial help, cattle producers will continue to exit the business, and our industry will continue to flounder.
Success will not come with money alone. Putting the money to work in the right places at the right time will allow us to be competitive in the global market, thereby ensuring that the primary, processing, and value-added industries remain in Canada and provide economic stability. We believe the structure is in place to put our industry back on track, but we need the help of the federal and provincial governments and the support of this committee to achieve stability.
There are four key areas that the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association feels are imperative to create the groundwork for our industry to be self-sufficient. These are the areas that we would like the federal government to consider creating and continuing to support.
Our number one area is the specified risk material offset program. The program implemented this past year to support the Canadian packing industry in the cost of disposing of specified risk material is imperative to the survival of small and large processing facilities alike.
The program evens the playing field. Without it, we aren't competitive with the U.S., and it allows more of our livestock to remain in Canada to be processed, thereby keeping jobs in Canada. The more we process here, the more jobs we create and sustain, the more value we create for our product, and the more confidence we can ensure for our consumers by ensuring that they get the best and safest product in the world. The decision on whether our livestock remains in the country for processing is made on pennies per head, not dollars, and if we can keep the values equal, we can gain huge returns for our economy.
Our recommendation: the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association kindly requests that the specified risk material offset program be continued until Canada’s regulations for animal waste removal are harmonized with our competitors'.
Number two is traceability. Both government and industry realize that being able to track our product is crucial. However, the challenges of getting the process in place are huge. Over the past decade, the Canadian cattle industry has had this vision, and we've been working hard to utilize and develop the technology and the processes required to make this happen. The government has now decided that this needs to be a mandated process and has set a timeframe for mandatory traceability by 2011.
Cattle producers cannot be expected to bear the financial burden of this decision alone. There have been many hurdles to implementing full traceability. First and foremost, improvements in the available technology are very necessary, but the funds are not available for the research and development. Primary cattle producers have found it very challenging to contribute the dollars that are required to develop and implement the first stages of traceability--the animal identification and tracking.
Our recommendation: the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association kindly requests that the federal government provide financial assistance to the industry to meet the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers’ stated goal of full, mandatory traceability by 2011.
Under the Growing Forward program, we note that the creation of the Growing Forward program could be very beneficial. We've been told--and we agree--that ad hoc programs won't work and are not sustainable. Having funds go towards developing programs that will become long-term benefits and will increase the profitability of the agriculture industry is what is needed.
The current process for accessing the Growing Forward funds is onerous. The decision process is flawed by a lack of familiarity with the agriculture industries. There needs to be flexibility in the process to allow for the uniqueness of certain industries. Timelines for payments need to be improved. Whether it’s a disaster or a program to help improve our profitability, the ability to access the funds when they are needed is imperative.
We would kindly recommend that the federal government analyze the criteria and processes in place for dispensing Growing Forward funds.
We also would like to see some improvements to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.