ABATTOIRS

Mr Ernie Hardeman (Oxford): My question is to the Minister of Agriculture and Food. Minister, last Wednesday you finally made the announcement that $7 million from the mature animal abattoir fund would go to four abattoirs in the province. Front-line farmers still reeling from the effects of the closed border went without funding so you could invest in the slaughter capacity for the surplus mature animal. At the time, at least one of the four abattoirs awarded the funding was licensed to slaughter animals for export and thus could not process mature animals. Minister, were you aware at the time of the announcement that the money you awarded was going to a facility that didn't qualify, or did your staff just keep you in the dark about that fact?

Hon Steve Peters (Minister of Agriculture and Food): I find it very interesting coming from a member who is quoted on March 5 of this year in the Tillsonburg News that if we had enough capacity, the border being closed to the US market wouldn't be such a hardship. This process we developed was developed in consultation with the farmers in Ontario: the Ontario Cattlemen's Association, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, along with many others. What we wanted to do was to try to increase capacity.