Agriculture committee  I don't believe that you can assert total food sovereignty in a world of globalized trade, but it does seem to me that there should be opportunities protected, to some extent, for Canadian food and agrifood businesses that can stand beside export arrangements. Supply management is a good case in point.

Agriculture committee  I'm thinking about that one. I hadn't thought of it quite that way. The idea that the country is at the mercy of whoever can provide the food is an extension of the idea that if you rely too much on very few players to provide the food the population needs, and something goes wrong with the very few players, the population's health is in jeopardy.

Agriculture committee  Sure. I'll also send a website to all of you that will be helpful, because there's a handy diagram. British Columbia introduced the meat inspection regulation in 2004. At that time the only option was to upgrade or build a class A or B facility. It involved an actual abattoir-type building.

Agriculture committee  I think that's where you need what we call a “graduated system”. I totally understand the level of export activity that Canada's agrifood is engaged in. I know that the federal government has made significant commitments and is seeking others for trade agreements. It's a question—if you're thinking of Al, Bert, and Charlie—about how they continue to function much more at the ground level.

Agriculture committee  But I agree with the reservations expressed by the writer and the other witness.

Agriculture committee  Perhaps you could clarify for me what we're talking about. Is it a carcass that's been slaughtered on a farm and being taken to a federally registered facility for further processing? Is that what we're talking about?

Agriculture committee  Okay. I actually haven't seen those changes. I'm a bit baffled by that constellation, because it's not one that I imagine happening in British Columbia. When we introduced the on-farm slaughter licences provincially, they were only for meat for sale at the farm gate. The carcass was not taken off the farm; it was slaughtered at the farm gate.

Agriculture committee  It depends on the scale and the cost, partly, of setting it up. If you're referring to the red meat mobile in your area, I don't know what problems that person had with the cost. It's a real challenge to balance the producers' requests for abattoir service—because they want it available the minute they want it, and of course they all tend to want it at the same time—and the processors' requirement for a steady supply of animals.

Agriculture committee  There is actually a mobile in your area, but I don't know whether he's still operating. I suspect what you're hearing from producers is that they don't have enough access to abattoirs. Is that correct?

Agriculture committee  It's interesting. I've talked to people in what I would call the industrial meat system—two people who were involved in beef export, in fact—and asked them what place the provincial-level operations have in the larger scheme of things. They both felt in principle that the world of the very small is important; however, to some extent the world of the very small exists on the sufferance of the very large.

Agriculture committee  If that were to happen, I would say yes. I think the likelihood of that kind of targeted behaviour to take out all the small is unlikely. The larger companies certainly have the capability of rolling over the smaller ones. There are a variety of methods that they use to make sure that, for instance, mining camps are all supplied by them, because they'll say to a smaller potential provider, if you don't give us every product we need, we won't take anything from you.

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question. I really can't speak to the other provinces. I can say, however, and this is the reason I gave you the examples of Bert and Charlie, that when you have tenacious and creative business people like them.... The reason for giving you those three examples was that they are of different sizes.

Agriculture committee  I can, thank you.

Agriculture committee  I have a technician standing by; let me know if you need him.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Kathleen Gibson. I'm a policy analyst in Victoria, British Columbia. I'm here today to represent the BC Food Systems Network. I've spent the last seven years on contract to the BC Food Processors Association working on provincial licensing and inspection of slaughterhouses in B.C. under the meat inspection regulation of the Food Safety Act.