VERNON, B.C. – B.C. is taking over inspection services from the federal government at about 60 slaughterhouses that process meat for the retail market.
As of Jan. 1, 2014, the federal government will no longer subsidize Canadian Food Inspection Agency employees at provincially licensed slaughterhouses, so the province is developing its own system, Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick said Friday.
Until last year, only B.C., Manitoba and Saskatchewan employed federal inspectors, and Letnick said the subsidy was costing Ottawa about $4 million to $4.5 million annually on the West Coast alone.
"So I imagine with them reviewing their budgets, and you know there's only one taxpayer, … they thought this was probably appropriate for the provincial government to pay for its own abattoir system," he said.
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