Interprovincial Trade Pilot

Ontario Sheep Farmers commends the provincial and the federal governments for taking steps toward interprovincial trade for meat within Canada.

OSF supports the proposed pilots to address slaughter availability in remote and rural border regions to increase producer access to small meat plants and custom slaughter services. Our organization also supports the proposal to work with high volume provincially inspected plants ready to expand market access beyond provincial boundaries to pilot national marketing before becoming federally inspected. 

For producers in rural and remote areas there has been a decline in service availability and capacity – most notably in eastern Ontario and northern Ontario as well as Quebec and within the municipal boundary of Lloydminster, AB. Many producers in these regions are seeking custom slaughter services not offered by large plants, to focus on local or direct to consumer sales where producers may obtain a premium for their products. 

Currently these producers cannot bring animals to nearby cross-border plants for slaughter and return to home province for local sale, but instead may have to travel hundreds of km within the province. Improving these circumstances is expected to reduce wait times and improve costs for producers on both sides of the border and support rural economies.

The region of Ontario surrounding Ottawa, including the counties of Renfrew, Lanark, Leeds, Grenville, Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott and Russell, represent 11% of Ontario’s sheep production. Eastern Ontario abattoirs have capacity for only half of these animals, with the rest having to travel hundreds of kilometres for processing. Eastern Ontario is a region of great opportunity for sheep farms due to the geography and cost of land, however, the sheep population has declined by 50% in the last 10 years. 

The northern region of Ontario that includes Algoma, Cochrane, Sudbury, Kenora, Manitoulin, Nipissing, Rainy River, Thunder Bay and Timiskaming represent only 3% of Ontario’s sheep production but represent the greatest opportunity for sheep production in the province. Sheep production in this region has declined 44% since 2012 mainly due to the distance from processing.

OSF encourages the province to announce and roll out these pilots in 2025 for eastern and northern regions of Ontario.

For the “Ready to Grow Pilot,” OSF supports the initiative for Ontario plants to access markets beyond Ontario and supports expansion of the pilot program for plants in other provinces that meet or exceed Ontario’s processing standards.