Can re-elected government open beef border?

Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant is home to over 33,500 head of cattle on 832 farms.

Now that the federal election has been decided, beef, sheep and dairy farmers across Canada are anxiously waiting to learn if the new mix of fresh, and former, faces on Parliament Hill will signal a renewed focus on opening the American border to Canadian beef.

Canada has passed the one-year anniversary of the BSE crisis, and while farmers were originally optimistic that sound science would prevail, there is no indication of normal trading practices resuming.

If action is not taken, losses to farmers will continue to mount past the point of insolvency. With good reason, farmers are discouraged with little hope for the future of their operations.

In Ontario alone, losses to the province’s 21,000 cattlemen have reached $200 million – an amount that would have totaled $300 million if not for assistance provided by Ontario and Canadian governments. If losses to related businesses are considered – including auction barns, truckers, packers, dealers and exporters – the costs exceed more than $1 billion. Where once BSE was considered a beef issue, the escalating impacts now threaten rural Ontario.

Certainly the picture would be even bleaker, if it hadn’t been for small successes along the way. Last summer access was regained for exports of boneless Canadian beef - from cattle under 30 months of age - into the U.S. and Mexico, our two largest export markets.

Further, the support of Canadians for eating beef has been unprecedented.

Despite these small successes however, the BSE crisis has helped drive Canadian farm income to its lowest level in 25 years. This current situation is simply not sustainable.

Despite the dire nature of the crisis that farmers now find themselves in, the Ontario government is indicating it has spent its limit on BSE-related initiatives. In April, it was reported the well was dry after a $74 million agriculture funding announcement. Only $10 million was allocated for BSE-related initiatives - $7 million to licensed abattoirs to expand the province’s capacity for the slaughter of cull animals, and $3 million for the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association to fund market development and other projects. The rest of the funding - $64 million – was available for all eligible farmers to ease the transition to a new generation of farm safety nets.

Regrettably, the recent Ontario budget cuts $128 million, or over 20 per cent, from the Agriculture Ministry.

Meanwhile, back at the border, the United States Department of Agriculture is continuing to assess the over 3,000 comments it received on a proposed rule for importing live cattle and other beef products from Canada.

While President George Bush stated emphatically - after a meeting with the Prime Minister at the end of April - that the border would re-open to live cattle as soon as possible, it is now July and there is still no indication of when a final decision will be reached. The recent discovery of a second cow in the U.S. producing an initial positive result for BSE complicates the issue.

Now that the federal election is over, it is high time for the provinces to work with the re-elected government in Ottawa in redoubling their efforts to open the border, and put contingency plans in place should the ban continue to drag on through the U.S. election this fall.