Pilot project set to knock down trade barriers for inter-provincial meat trade

Sunday, April 3, 2011

So far, three Ontario plants have been selected, none of them near provincial borders. Others hope the project will identify what they need to do to meet federal standards
 

by SUSAN MANN and MARY BAXTER
 

If you thought that a federal pilot program intended to help provincially licensed meat plants move into inter-provincial trade would include Ontario plants close to provincial borders, think again.

The three plants nominated for the program – V.G. Packers Ltd. of Simcoe, Schinkel's Legacy of Chatham and Sikorski Sausages Ltd. of London – are all located deep in southern Ontario, hundreds of kilometres away from provincial borders. They were among 19 plants nominated from across Canada to be included in the pilot. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) planned to finalize the list by late March.

"Obviously, they're looking at volumes," says Steve Loshaw, president of Rainy River District Regional Abattoir Inc. The not-for-profit plant is near Ontario's border with Manitoba in Emo, a 20-hour drive from Toronto and five hours from Winnipeg. It's one of 52 plants that applied to the program. The plants nominated are all "involved in much bigger processing than we are," notes Loshaw. The Rainy River abattoir includes a "kill and chill," one licensed premise and another they're hoping to open this month.

A provincial panel selected the finalists to be reviewed by the national committee overseeing the pilot. Sarah Petrevan, spokesman for Ontario Agriculture Minister Carol Mitchell, says the selection criteria included compliance history, relevance to the project, operator engagement, financial considerations and overall assessment of the business and likelihood of project success.

Cory Van Groningen, an owner of V.G., says being able to obtain the licensing means the opportunity to recapture business lost about eight years ago with retailers now owned by national chains and food service contractors. The company slaughters beef and hogs and buys poultry carcasses from other packers. "We're quite vertically integrated," he says, adding that his company also processes products for its business and other retailers.

He blames illegal activities at an Aylmer slaughterhouse discovered in 2003 for causing "some confusion" about the credibility of provincial licensing. As well, most national chains require plants to be federally licensed, so they can ship products throughout the country. "The policies that these companies put in place affect our company way out here in the middle of southwestern Ontario," he says.

The pilot also provides participants funding to help with the transition to meet federal standards. In V.G. Packers' case, just how much hasn't been determined yet, Van Groningen says.

But the pilot stops short of actually licensing the plants, says Alice Danjou, a spokesman with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Once registered, the plants will not only be able to ship across provincial borders but also national borders – as long as products meet their destination's requirements.

Richard Arsenault, director of the CFIA's meat programs division, says improving opportunities for inter-provincial trade for small businesses is one of the pilot's goals. Another is to simplify CFIA manuals and procedures for inspections and controls in federally registered meat plants.

There will be consultations on the changed procedures before they're adopted, he says.
The information-gathering phase of the project will take six to 12 months and the plants could become eligible to trade inter-provincially within that time, says Guy Gravelle, a CFIA spokesman. Timing may vary from plant to plant "depending on the adjustments required to fully align with the federal requirements and revised procedures."

The pilot was announced last year at the federal, provincial and territorial agricultural minister's meeting. The federal government is contributing $3 million to the pilot from its Agricultural Flexibility Fund, while the provinces are putting in $2 million. An additional third of the project cost comes from industry.

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says plants will have to meet a national standard and the federal government is doing this "in a way that is affordable for a provincial plant and makes economic sense for them." BF