NEWS RELEASE

August 11, 2003                                                                                            For Immediate Release

BREITKREUZ CALLS ON PRIME MINISTER TO HELP OPEN UP U.S. BORDER.

“The crisis in the beef industry is not over.”

OTTAWA - Garry Breitkreuz, Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville, is in Ottawa today representing local beef producers at a special meeting of the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.  Breitkreuz hopes that this meeting will continue to pressure all concerned with the B.S.E. (Mad Cow Crisis) to resolve it quickly and completely.

“There have been many families and businesses that have felt the devastating effects of the border closings since the discovery of one case of B.S.E. on May 20, 2003.  I know that this effect has been felt by beef, sheep, buffalo and elk producers, packing plants, feed lots, dairy, wild game, the trucking industry, auction marts, and numerous other industries and local businesses,” Breitkreuz emphasized.

Breitkreuz called the partial lifting on the ban of Canadian beef “a baby step forward”, but still maintains that the Liberal government must do much, much more to improve relations with the United States (U.S.) and restore the free trade of meat products.  Science has indicated clearly for weeks that our beef is safe, but our unhealthy relationship with the U.S. government has delayed the process for solving this problem.

The United States has partially opened its border, but we need to make sure the border opens completely.  There must also be pressure put on other countries to follow suit and re-open their borders.  The partial opening of the border only allows for a fraction of the total previous exports.  We need the borders of all our trading partners to open to allow for a free flow of meat products and live animals.

Also, the federal government needs to put in place an agricultural support program that the provinces will sign onto because at the end of the day, compensation needs to be properly handled to assist those devastated by the B.S.E. crisis.

Breitkreuz concluded by again urging the Prime Minister to take leadership on this issue.  “I asked the Prime Minister a month ago to make this a priority.  But unfortunately, this Liberal government treats agriculture as a third-rate industry.  It must become a priority.  This issue could have been resolved by now, but farmers are paying the price for the poor political relationship between Canada and the U.S.”

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For further details, please refer to the attached Canadian Alliance BSE Action Plan.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                          August 11, 2003

Canadian Alliance BSE Action Plan

The Liberal government has failed to convince many of Canada’s trading partners to open their borders to Canadian beef exports, which have been proven scientifically safe.  In three weeks, the United States’ border will only open partially to Canadian beef exports.  A Canadian Alliance government would act.  The Canadian Alliance believes:

·          A comprehensive plan must be tabled that addresses Canada’s trading partners’ concerns to ensure that the world’s borders are completely open to Canadian beef exports;

·          The government must table a plan to address the 210,000 cull cow and bull backlog;

·          Canadian trade delegations comprised of government officials from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Trade, and members of the beef industry must meet with Canada’s trading partners who closed their borders to Canadian beef and use the recent decision by the United States to partially open their border to Canadian beef as leverage;

·          The Canadian government must pressure the United States to allow for the movement of live cattle across the Canada-U.S. border;

·          There must be 100% adherence to the 1997 ban on feeding rendered ruminant animal by-products to other ruminants;

·          The government must provide a definitive plan on how meat packers are to handle Specified Risk Materials to allow meat packers to re-tool; and,

·         The Canadian public should continue to be encouraged to support our suffering beef industry.  Most Canadian fast-food outlets, restaurants, and retail chains are using more, if not exclusively using, Canadian beef due to public pressure.

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For further information, please contact: Office of Gerry Ritz, M.P. at (613) 995-7080