Posted on 06/21/2003 1:08:26 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
The cause of Canada's struggling beef industry will be on the diplomatic table next week when Alberta Premier Ralph Klein meets with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington.
Klein will meet Cheney Wednesday before travelling to New York, the Toronto Sun reported Saturday.
The premier is expected to try and convince the U.S. to reopen its border to Canadian beef -- shut down since the discovery of a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.
The senior Liberal cabinet minister from Alberta, Health Minister Anne McLellan, played down the significance of Klein's visit.
"If the premier wants to go to Washington to make the case around the border, that's a decision, a political calculation, that he makes," she said.
Production in Canadian beef slaughter plants is down by almost 60 per cent since the U.S. became the first country to ban Canadian beef. Canada's beef exports are worth about $4 billion a year, with the United States being the largest customer.
In Ottawa, the national director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Michael Fraser, believes relief for Canadian meat packers may be in the works.
Fraser, who met with Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart last week, said the minister spoke of extending a work sharing program currently running in one Alberta meat packing plant.
"We think it could be a very positive thing," Fraser told The Canadian Press. "It depends on the individual circumstances of each plant and the hours that we're talking about, but certainly we think it is better than doing nothing."
Earlier this month, Stewart announced a work sharing program for employees at the Lakeside Packers plant in Brooks, Alta.
Under the $10-million program, employees work a reduced week -- between 20 and 60 per cent of the normal work schedule -- but avoid layoffs.
Fraser said employees working shorter shifts will be supplemented by employment insurance.
Bargain hunters herd to buck-pound-deal
Alberta beef producers saddled by a growing stockpile of unwanted meat took matters into their own hands Friday. They cut prices to the bone and sold boxes of ground beef from the backs of trucks -- inspiring thousands to line up for a buck-a-pound burger bargain.
The beef came from a federally inspected plant in Alberta and was being sold on the cheap to promote Canada's beef industry, devastated by a single case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
Beef that would have normally been sold in the U.S. is stuck north of the border, which is closed to Canadian beef. That means there's an oversupply.
"I think we can eat our way out of this problem," Joe Jackson of JGL Livestock said.
"Just goes to show today people are here to support (Canada's beef industry). They're not afraid of our beef. They know it's safe and that's why they are here."
Ranchers say they have no intention of undercutting or putting retailers out of business -- they just want to build support for their beef.
There are plans to expand the tour to include Winnipeg and Vancouver next week.
With reports from CTV's Jeff Little and The Canadian Press
They suckle islamic terrorist bent on the killing of U.S. citizens
They bad mouth us non-stop
They work against us in the war on terror..backing our enemies and those who support them
Then the whine about us not doing business with them?.. Seal the borders...Canuckistan is hardly our ally ...imo
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