A local agriculture operation owner says her business fell through the cracks when the Ministry of Agriculture took over abattoir inspections from the Ministry of Health in 2012.
Elisabeth Karlen of XH Buffalo Ranch on South Green Lake says she was encouraged to upgrade the facility and to pursue licensing and permits for beef slaughter.
She explains her issue is the whole process happened just months before 100 Mile House was given a mobile red-meat slaughterhouse – effectively cutting off her beef business market.
Their buffalo slaughter falls under its provincial B licence for beef and bison now, but to get the permit to accept live beef for slaughter required about $11,000 in modifications for the small, family-run operation.
"Our beef business is dead; it is nothing. For our buffalo, it's working, but not for cattle."
Karlen says she fully understands the convenience, and even the strong need for a complete local meat facility that offers processing.
"We don't have a cutting/wrapping facility. That's why it's more complicated to bring beef here."
Her issue is the "unfairness" of government representatives' encouragement to expand their South Green Lake business when months later the rug was effectively pulled out from under their beef market, she explains.
Karlen says that encouragement came from the Ministry of Health, which was responsible for slaughter inspections prior to, and during, the summer of 2012.
"We appreciate the assistance of the Ministry of Health, and they gave us the B licence, and everything was good at that time."
She explains initially this encouragement indicated a corral would be needed, then later a roof, and finally a concrete floor was among the requirements to meet the regulations for permits and licencing.
That fall, however, the responsibility for slaughter inspection and licensing at provincially licensed abattoirs was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett visited the XH Buffalo Ranch with Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick on Oct. 30, 2012, shortly after it got its licence and permits squared away.
Barnett says nobody likes to put money into something that never happens, but adds she has "no idea" where the Karlens got the idea they would have an exclusive local slaughter market.
"It was already up and operating when I went there."
There are "an awful lot" of people in that area who use a slaughter service, Barnett notes.
"Maybe people don't realize they are there because it was always advertised as a bison [business]. I don't know. I know a couple of people that went there because they had no other place to go."
Ministry of Agriculture media representative Robert Boelens says the mobile abattoir in 100 Mile House came about as a result of the province’s "extensive" meat-inspection system consultation process from 2010 to November 2012.
Ministry staff worked with the licensee, community and local government throughout the process, he adds.
"The South Cariboo had a high demand for a local slaughter solution and a mobile abattoir was identified as the best possible solution."
As a result, a provincially-licensed, mobile red-meat abattoir was stationed and is now operational in 100 Mile House, and helping meet the demand for local meats, Boelens explains.
However, Karlen says she didn't continue with the upgrades blindly, and repeatedly asked government representatives about a 100 Mile House business regaining slaughter capacity, and was told the local facility would "never get a permit" again.
"We were told from two or three different places in the Ministry of Health that they will never operate again, under the current conditions, to slaughter cattle. Then, it changed from Ministry of Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to the Ministry of Agriculture, and they provided this mobile slaughterhouse."
By the spring of 2012, the South Cariboo Meat Co-op and its plans for a local abattoir had collapsed, and there was no indications to her that anyone was working on another one, she adds.
Karlen says the basic issue is XH Buffalo Ranch would not have put its own hard-earned money into upgrades had it known government's intention to return slaughter capacity to 100 Mile House.
"My problem is they should have told us."