KAMLOOPS - Ranchers and meat processors in British Columbia are urging the province to designate agriculture an essential service, saying an ongoing public service strike is threatening the industry.
BC Cattlemen’s Association director Paul Devick says in a letter to the province that the strike has resulted in a work stoppage by agri-food inspectors in some areas.
Devick says this has disrupted meat processing at slaughterhouses, harming the ranch and agri-food industry.
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He’s urging essential-service status for the agriculture sector and supporting services to ensure continued access to meat inspection services.
Premier David Eby says he agrees that agriculture should be considered an essential service, as it had been in previous labour disputes.
He says the government will be “heading back to the Labour Relations Board” to make “exactly that request.”
But Eby said food supplies would not be interrupted as the vast majority of slaughterhouses in B.C. were federally inspected.
“I just want to reassure British Columbians this is less a food security issue and more an animal welfare issue,” Eby said during an unrelated press conference Thursday.
“This is about making sure that we’re avoiding unnecessary suffering among animal populations and making sure that farmers that are dependent on these provincially inspected facilities are able to continue operating.”
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Eby also said there was a process in place to allow facilities to continue operating in the interim but did not specify what the process is.
Devick says in his letter that ranchers “depend on the sale and processing of their product to maintain their operations,” and slaughterhouses are often family-run businesses.
He also says a number of youth working in ranching are set to sell their beef projects at the upcoming BC Ag Expo.
“Many of these youth use the proceeds of their sale project to fund their post-secondary education,” Devick says. “The sale of their projects is in jeopardy if they cannot be processed.”
Job action by the BC General Employees’ Union is in its second week, with pickets at government offices and other sites in cities including Victoria, Surrey, Prince George, Kamloops and Kelowna.
The union says more than 4,000 of 34,000 or so members in the B.C. public service are striking.Â
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2025.
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