Mr. Speaker, certainly there are regional variances in slaughter capacity. There are huge regional variances in where the animals are; that is part of what drove it to begin with. The vast majority of the beef market is in Alberta, followed by Saskatchewan, so certainly the slaughter plants need to be built there.
Manitoba finds itself without any kind of federally regulated slaughter facility. Several groups have been taking a run at trying to get something under way there.
The minister talks glowingly about a 20% increase in capacity, driven by the big two, with Cargill and Lakeside expanding. The problem with it is that they are directed at the animals under 30 months and we do not particularly have a problem at that point. The problem is in slaughter capacity for buffalo, hogs and cull animals. That is the big capacity we need.
The minister cannot seem to differentiate that two streams of processing are required, certainly the one under 30 months, and the big guys are going to do well. They are expanding. They are putting in new technology and so on. They are doing okay and they will continue to.
What we need is a secondary line of processing that will address the domestic shortfall that we always used to import for. We always used to bring in grass-fed animals to feed our fast food lines in our specialty restaurants. We no longer do that, other than our WTO and NAFTA commitments. We do not do the supplementary quotas. That is a good thing, but we need specialty processors that can step up and fill that niche.
We used to export the vast majority of our culls and then buy back two-thirds to fill the niche markets here. We have never addressed that shortfall yet. That is what the minister is missing. Those are sustainable markets and sustainable plants.
Certainly we have to be very stingy with taxpayers' dollars and not put them at risk, but sound business plans directed at markets where there is a huge and glaring void now should be sustainable.