2 MEETING schedule butchered


the province where meat processing businesses are located,” says Nova Woodbury, executive director of the BC Association of Abattoirs. The lack of stops in the


Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island also excluded the majority of the province’s farmers and consumers, making it difficult for the committee to fulfill its mandate “to consider the views of farmers, producers, processors, consumers, restaurateurs and all other individuals and organizations interested in local, small-scale meat production.”


The changes disappointed


Woodbury. “I know there were quite a number of people who were planning on attending but who may not have registered prior to the cancellations,” she says. “Arrangements needed to be made to adjust work schedules and take care of livestock, the abattoir and young children.”


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KAMLOOPS – “There have been some common threads in the representations we have heard this week,” Select Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fish and Food chair MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard told Country Life in BC as consultations wrapped up in Kamloops mid-June. “Conflict is a common thread,” says


Leonard. “There are those who want to maintain their [Class D and E licences] without any change, and there are those that want to see them gone.” “Another of the other common themes is that inspections don’t scare anybody; they want them,” Leonard adds. Industry members also told the committee that too many agencies are involved in regulating meat processing. “It’s disjointed,” says deputy chair Jackie Tegert. “We need to look at bringing it all


Cancellation of the


Abbotsford meeting particularly concerns Woodbury. Bonnie Windsor Assistant


Plant Manager at Chilliwack pork processor Johnston’s Meats says she found the on line registration process frustrating. “It took forever and then at the end it booted me out.” The committee never told


Windsor the Abbotsford meeting was cancelled; she got the news from the abattoirs association. “One of our local vets


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under one roof.” On the positive side, Leonard says most hearing participants want to be inspected. Many see it as integral to animal welfare. “What we hear is a common concern for


the welfare of the animals,” says Tegert. “People need to be able to slaughter animals, and when you think about having them on a truck in the summer heat for two or four hours, that is pretty tough.” The challenge is getting the various


parts working together. “I don’t get a sense that anyone is


threatened by the discussions of animal welfare, or inspections or food safety,” says Tegert. “It is how do we have a level playing field that gives people access to facilities to slaughter their animals at a time that is right for them.”


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phoned me to say that he had driven for an hour to get to the Abbotsford venue, only to find that it was cancelled,” says Windsor. “He said several other people were at the Abbotsford site.” Abbotsford wasn't the only place people missed out. “Many of the people planning on attending were owners of independent butcher shops who have expressed deep concern that their access to fully inspected BC meat may be in jeopardy if the province relaxes the rules for uninspected meat processors,” Woodbury says. “Other locations, such as Prince George, Dawson Creek and Saanich, also would have had a number of butcher shops and small livestock producers in attendance that are concerned about increasing uninspected meat production and sale to


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consumers who are not aware of the difference.” She wonders why the time of the hearings, not the places, were changed. “If it was too difficult to


coordinate it with committee members’ schedules, why didn’t they just say so and reschedule the entire week for later?” she asks.


Julia Smith of the Small-


Scale Meat Producers Association agrees, noting that the committee will submit its report in October. Requiring all submissions by June 15 – less than two months after the committee’s appointment – then giving it four months to write up the findings doesn’t make sense to her. “They weren’t open to the


idea of rescheduling meetings at all,” she says. “It doesn’t seem right to me that they should rush through their


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2018 nfrom page 1


consultation and then we don’t get a report until October.” Committee chair Ronna-Rae


Leonard and deputy chair Jackie Tegert attributed the cancellations to a lack of registered speakers. Just one person signed up in Haida Gwaii, for example. “We advertised it on


Facebook and on the radio,” says Leonard. “We just didn’t have enough scheduled attendees.” Woodbury questions whether pre-registration was a true gauge of interest. “When I signed up for the Kamloops meeting a couple of days ahead of time, I was scheduled to be the sixth and last speaker,” she says. “By the close of the evening the committee heard from 14 speakers, three of whom were penciled in at the registration desk.” She adds that groups such


as hers, not to mention individual processors, never received formal invitations. “We were rushing to get committee member availability for the sessions and then have time to complete our report,” explains Leonard. “At the end we did provide the opportunity,” adds Tegart, pointing out that interested parties could register for one of the remaining sessions or present by phone conference. “We did have someone phone in from Prince George as well as someone from the Nechako region,” says Leonard. The committee heard from 50 people in all, including seven phone-ins although the meetings had attendees that did not present Leonard points out. Forty written submissions were received and 70 on line surveys completed.


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