Thank you.
Good afternoon, I am the chair of the National Cattle Feeders' Association, and a feedlot owner in Taber, Alberta. I'm joined by the president and CEO of the National Cattle Feeders'.
NCFA was established in 2007 as a unified voice for Canadian cattle feeders. The focus of NCFA is sustainable growth and profitability, improved competitiveness and industry leadership and partnership.
Agricultural supply chains are under tremendous pressure, 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 through the supply chain.
Last year's drought in western Canada was unprecedented, causing significant shortages of livestock feed and resulting in a surge of feed imports from the U.S. This increased feed demand, along with the fires and floods in B.C., exposed a multitude of weaknesses in our transportation systems. To date, dry, cold conditions in parts of western Canada are hampering the crop outlook, which may result in ongoing pressure on the transportation system.
Additionally, this year has been plagued with black swan events from protests at the Canada-U.S. border stopping the movement of beef and cattle, to labour stoppages at CP Rail, to an increased focus on feeding a global population due to the war in Ukraine, adding further stress to the livestock supply chain.
Using rail as an example, western Canada mainly relies on one company, CP Rail. In Alberta, at the time of the CP Rail strike, there was only a one- to two-week supply of feed grain available, creating grave concern about how we would feed our animals. Thankfully, the strike did not last long, but it brought forward the extreme reliance we have on CP Rail. While we recognize the right of Canadians to strike, when rail transportation is a monopoly and animal welfare is on the line, the Government of Canada must declare rail an essential service.
It's also important to understand the unique nature of live animal transportation. Cattle move across the U.S.-Canada border daily, with young cattle coming from the U.S. to supply our farms and finished cattle being exported to the U.S. for processing. Within Canada, truck drivers are needed to move cattle to and from farms and processing plants, for the removal of manure and for the transport of feed and supplies. These drivers require specialized training to transport livestock as animal welfare is of the utmost importance. Drivers must adhere to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's animal transport regulations, as well as safe driver regulations with respect to electronic logging devices, ELDs.
Unfortunately, these two regulations were not developed by the government in consideration of each other, nor do they recognize the unique needs of livestock transport. The two sets of regulations do not align the mandated breaks for the drivers and the available facilities for the mandated breaks for the livestock. The regulations do not allow for flexibility that would prioritize animal welfare, and the U.S. regulations do.