The New Brunswick provincial government is upping the ante in an on-going clash over chicken processing with the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
The province will give itself the power to pick where poultry is processed by proclaiming a law that was passed in June 2009 but never put into effect, says provincial agriculture minister Ronald Ouellette.
That move will ensure that locally raised chickens will go to the Nadeau poultry plant in St-François, near Edmundston in northwestern New Brunswick.
Ouellette told the legislative assembly that he had no choice after farmer groups in Ontario and Quebec blocked their chickens from being exported to Nadeau, which lost a supply of domestically produced birds when Quebec-based Groupe Westco moved to buy New Brunswick chickens and have them processed outside of the province.
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“I will be seeking government approval that Bill 81 be proclaimed in order to protect New Brunswick’s industry from the potential detrimental impacts of the decision taken by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario and the Régie des Marchés Agricoles et Alimentaires de Québec,” Ouellette said.
The agriculture minister said in June 2009 when the legislation was first introduced that he was concerned Westco’s actions could drive the existing Nadeau plant out of business, and that the legislation would allow for a cooling-off period between the companies.
Groupe Westco had announced it was joining forces with Quebec-based Olymel to build a new slaughterhouse in northern New Brunswick. In December 2007, Westco said that it wanted to start moving some chickens to a Quebec-based processing plant while building a new facility in Clair, N.B.
Earlier this year both the Competition Bureau of Canada and the New Brunswick Court of Appeal refused to block the export of New Brunswick chickens to Westco’s Quebec plant.
Nadeau responded by trying to import excess chicken from Ontario and Quebec to its plant, a move that has now been thwarted by the chicken producers in those provinces.
Nadeau Poultry Farm announced in August that it was laying off 175 of the 340 people employed at its Maple Lodge near Edmundston because of the poultry dispute.
