Mr. Chair, of course the hon. member and the minister must realize that the set-aside programs that have been designed, both for calves and for fat cattle, will not work unless at some point in the process we have more capacity or the border opens.
With the way the situation exists on the border opening, with outfits like R-CALF in the United States that are going to challenge legally any ruling that comes from the U.S. department of agriculture, I feel that this thing could drag on for years. So let us look at a made in Canada solution, as was mentioned earlier.
In order to send the message to the Americans that we are serious about creating an industry in this country that is strong and viable, we must have the capacity to run the animals through our slaughter facilities in Canada without using their slaughter facilities. Anything that leaves this country should go out on a hook or in a box, not on the hoof.
Both of the big plants in western Canada are outdated and aged. If we could show that we are actually starting construction of major, modern plants--and I would say one in the west and one in the east--we could show that we have the capacity to do the slaughtering and we could build this industry far better and stronger than it was in the past. Cement in the ground, with construction starting, is absolutely critical to the whole issue of moving forward.
There is the issue of rationalization of the herd. We can sell beef 30 months and younger. If it is slaughtered it will go, but 30 months and older is a whole different situation and we will have to deal with that in this country. Certainly there are markets for it. As a last solution there is herd reduction and herd rationalization. If a use cannot be found for some or all of the beef in those animals, then another option should be looked at. Those options, as I said, should be the last options we consider in this country, but they should not be options that we do not think about. As the size of the herd grows and those older animals keep getting put back into breeding stock, it just compounds the issue.
If I have time for one more comment, I want to mention the trucking industry in the country. Right now the fall calf run has started and it is going pretty well. Prices are fairly decent and producers are taking their animals to town.
There is a 40% reduction in the number of cattle liners that are capable of hauling these animals to market. They cannot get enough trucks to move the cattle they want to move right now and the fall run has not really hit full blown steam. Forty per cent of that industry has left. It has gone elsewhere and is not coming back. That is happening throughout the industry, whether it is trucking or the people who work in the plants, in the industry, in the auction markets or in the feedlots. That expertise is leaving the industry and it is not being replaced.
Once that happens, it is the beginning of a death spiral that we have to do something about. It is imperative that we act quickly and in a manner that restores the confidence in the industry so the whole industry starts to move and from cow-calf operator to consumer the chain is in full movement.