The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) caused quite a stir within the beef cattle community over its proposed changes to traceability regulations.
Groups such as the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) and the Saskatchewan Cattle Association (SCA) took to social media to call on the CFIA to "immediately halt the implementation of the proposed federal traceability regulatory changes."
CEO of the SCA Christina Betker said what was proposed was additional requirements for moving cattle between "between community pastures or to vet clinics or to fairs like Canadian Western Agribition."
"Some of those were pieces that really had producers very concerned." Betker said.
President of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association Jeff Yorga is strongly against the proposed changes and wrote about it in the January edition of the Beef Business Magazine.
But in a statement on Saturday, the CFIA said they are pausing publication of the proposed changes until they are "more widely understood and concerns are heard and taken into consideration." The Agency also said the amendments "are not currently in place and have not been finalized."
In a statement following the CFIA's announcement, the CCA said it "recognizes the system cannot be onerous for producers; traceability requires adoption and participation to be effective. Our goal is to ensure all regulations and proposed changes are feasible and offer clear industry value."
"This is definitely a positive step that they listened to the industry and the concerns that we were having regarding the proposed changes to the traceability regulation," Betker said of the new development. "And now we'll see where this goes."
She notes town hall meetings about the topic are being organized with the goal of starting in February.
"And with those, we're hoping to engage with CFIA at the town halls. In regards to a formal process, we haven't heard anything yet on what they're looking to do." she said.
And it will be something discussed at next week's Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference in Saskatoon. Betker is hoping to get the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) involved.
"Even if they're on pause at the moment, it's still worth having that conversation." Betker added.
SaskAgToday has reached out to the CFIA for additional comment on the proposed regulations.
