K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist
After decades of fighting to loosen provincial regulations preventing Quebec-slaughtered meat from being sold in another province, Outaouais bovine producers are making another effort, hoping recent interest in interprovincial trade will work in their favour.
A motion passed unanimously at the Producteurs bovines du Québec’s (PBQ) annual general meeting in Quebec City last month is calling on the Quebec farmers’ union (UPA) to form a new policy for interprovincial trade of beef.
The motion calls for the UPA to adopt a new policy regarding the free trade of agricultural products between provinces, and for that policy to be communicated to the federal and provincial governments.
The motion said there are barriers preventing the interprovincial trade of agriculture products, such a the lack of consistent inspection certifications between provinces and the severe shortage of federally licenced abattoirs that would allow producers to market across provincial boundaries.
Blake Draper, a Quyon cow-calf producer who attended the meeting as the MRC des Collines representative, said he hopes the motion will improve the interprovincial traffic, allowing meat products slaughtered in Quebec to be sold in Ontario. Currently, those products must be sold in the same province in which they are slaughtered.
“Any meat killed in a provincial slaughterhouse, no matter if it’s pork, beef, lamb, chicken, you’re not supposed to sell it cross-border,” he said, adding that producers can go to a federally licensed slaughterhouse if they wish to sell across provincial borders, but the closest one is in Terrebonne, almost three hours away.
“A lot of the cases are that with these smaller abattoirs, the only inspection option that’s viable is provincial inspection rather than a federal plan, because of the high cost associated with federal plans,” said Stan Christensen, bovine representative for the UPA Outaouais-Laurentides, who presented the motion at the PBQ’s meeting.
Steve Hamilton, a Clarendon beef producer who was in Quebec City representing the MRC Pontiac, said bringing down interprovincial barriers would allow Pontiac farmers to be able to sell and market their meat in Renfrew County, and vice-versa.
“It would open up [the market]. Then those same farmers could [ . . . ] come over, and then they could actually take that meat home and be perfectly legal to market it,” he said.
Hamilton, who is on the co-op of producers working to bring back the Shawville abattoir, said the facility could also benefit from increased interprovincial traffic.
“There were Ontario producers coming over previously, but [ . . . ] coming from Ontario to Quebec and then taking your meat back to Ontario, it’s been provincially inspected, so under the present system that means that technically you aren’t able to sell,” he said.
Christensen said bovine producers in his regional branch of the UPA have been trying to make these changes happen for around 30 years, adding that motions had even made it to the union’s top brass before, but never actually resulted in legislation.
“We’ve always lobbied to have this free trade between provinces [ . . . ] it makes it very difficult to be viable without that movement, because people just all meet on the other side,” he said, adding that some producers just get their meat slaughtered in Ontario because it allows them to sell it there.
Draper said with the current political discourse around increasing interprovincial trade within Canada, they felt it was the right moment to bring it forward again.
“That’s why we brought it forward at this [meeting], was because both the provincial governments and the federal government are talking that we need more interprovincial trade. We felt this was a good time to present this motion and try to have it looked at and furthered.”
Christensen said he felt the moment was right for the Outaouais-Laurentides to come out with a statement in favour of interprovincial trade.
“Beef is usually singled out [ . . . ] as the leader in the selling of meat,” he said. “So it’s important that we take the lead in this, and that this was one way to put pressure on our farmers’ union. [ . . . ] We want a clear statement that we’re in favour of this, and we want to do everything possible to make it happen.”
He added he is confident this motion has the legs to reach the top level of the UPA.
“We had a bit of a movement, we thought it was going to happen with covid and restrictions, and there was a lot of interest in local products and everything, but that waned sort of quickly,” he said. “We’ve got a new impetus.”
Now that the motion has been passed by the PBQ, it will be voted on by the UPA’s executive council. Christensen is hoping the motion will be passed there, so that it may be presented to both federal and provincial governments and make it into legislation.
Draper and Hamilton were also present at the UPA’s Pontiac syndicate general assembly on Mar. 27 to present the motion to their local council. After some modifications to the wording, including the addition of yak producers to the list, the motion was passed and will now be presented at the Outaouais-Laurentides region’s next meeting.
This, Christensen said, will give the motion another chance at getting to the top level of the UPA.
“This is a two-pronged approach, so it’s going to be steered through the local syndicate to the regional federation, and again to the provincial one. We’re heading in both directions.”