The movement toward a locally based red meat abattoir has been severely impacted.
The South Cariboo Meat Co-op (SCMC) membership present at a special meeting on Nov. 30 voted to dissolve the co-op.
SCMC chair Gus Horn says the board could not justify the degree of expenditure needed to build the abattoir to meet government regulations, based on its anticipated return of revenue in today's market.
"There wasn't enough money in the kitty to build what we were told we needed to build."
The board's recent recommendation for dissolution was the "fair and equitable" thing to do for the shareholders, he adds, given the current projected costs and the "moving goal posts" of the B.C. Liberal government's licensing requirements.
While the directors will step down, the co-op project has some momentum behind it that will continue, Horn notes.
"As far as acquiring the [provincial Class B] licence, that wasn't finished; we're not dropping that ball.
"We will continue dealing with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the BC Centre for Disease Control on that front, as a steering committee or whatever."
However, Lone Butte rancher Ann Armann says the collapse of the co-op is a "bitter disappointment," both to her as a local producer, and to the membership at large.
The local meat slaughter facility was a key component to her business plan for the Circle H Ranch, and she explains this will leave a "totally adverse effect" on her cattle and sheep production.
"Now, I have got to engineer a way to continue operating as a local producer, and it will affect my bottom line."
The costly transport of animals to licensed abattoirs severely impacts the viability of local meat production, which Armann says is critical for food sustainability and "freedom of food" (decentralized, healthy, local food availability) in the South Cariboo.
"It's a crying shame the directors, who have all worked so incredibly hard and diligently, have been hamstrung at every turn, despite rolling over every stone to appease and accommodate government dictation [and] bureaucracy, pushing the financial ceiling to an unrealistically high figure....
"The project was squashed every which way by the B.C. Liberal government enforcing those regulations."
The most important action for everyone who cares about the future of local food production to take now, she adds, is to lobby for the province to extend the Findlay Meats slaughter licence, which expires on Dec. 31.
Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett says she is already working "very hard" with the co-op and her colleagues in government, and notes she has brought the issue of extending the Findlay Meats' licence to Victoria.
Barnett explains she "firmly believes" the co-op board when it says changing licensing requirements have more than doubled their projected abattoir design costs, as she has been working very closely with them from the beginning.
"I understand their issue completely. I feel as strongly about [it] as they do.
"There's a one-size-fits-all design, and [that] doesn't work ... this is not just an issue in the South Cariboo."
Barnett says this is something people should take to their government to effect changes and she welcomes related letters.
The MLA adds she is also working with ranchers in other small, rural communities to come up with new models that will meet their needs.
"I do disagree that it's the B.C. Liberal government [responsible]. I think it's the bureaucracy.
"If anybody's changed the goal posts, it's the inspectors the way I read it...."
Meanwhile, Armann says the board did the "honourable thing" to recommend dissolution rather than continuing to spend the shareholders' money when the project's future looks bleak.
The board told its members the unofficial expected return on share redemption currently looks to be about 80 cents on the dollar, but Armann explains that remaining 20 per cent isn't necessarily lost.
Noting she finds it reassuring the co-op's planned components for land use and licensing will continue moving forward, and says there is still hope for an abattoir to "rise out of the ashes, if an entrepreneur drops out of the sky."
Horn notes that a local law office is handling the dissolution and share redemption, so the board is limited in what they can confirm or discuss publicly until the legal aspects are resolved.