The above link takes you to a Google Fusion Table that I created from OMAFRA's website, mapping OMAF's data showing all Ontario licensed abattoirs. Well done to OMAF for providing public access to these data in a form that can be readily analyzed. Many thanks to Google for providing free use for the mapping of this public data.
 |
| Map of OMAF data for Ontario licensed abattoirs |
There is another list of Federally inspected abattoirs in Ontario, but that data isn't easily available. I have requested this data from CFIA, but it hasn't arrived yet.
It should be noted that some of these abattoirs do not do custom processing of poultry (ie. they only slaughter for themselves, and will not do poultry that belongs to other individuals). That is the case for Burt's Farms abattoir on Manitoulin Island, where I happen to live. In 2011-2012, OMAF helped to build a community abattoir in Providence Bay at a price somewhere near $2 million, but this abattoir decided not to process poultry.
Should OMAF require a comprehensive needs assessment be done before agreeing to fund community abattoirs? Did that occur in my case, and others? If yes, why and I left stranded?
For me, the closest poultry abattoir that does custom processing for chicken farmers is in Sudbury, 300 km away (1-way distance). I would have to drive there with my birds, and return will a cooler full of meat to sell at my farm gate. Driving that distance would add about $3.00 per pound to the cost of my small farm chicken, doubling the retail price I'd have to charge.
It would appear that Southern Ontario is well covered with abattoirs, but there are many holes in Bracebridge/Bancroft/Haliburtin/Perth area, and even worse in Northern Ontario and the Hudson-James Bay area.
Does the Ontario government believe there is nobody living in these under-serviced areas, or that they are all vegetarians?
As far as I know, all of these abattoirs are privately owned and operated, so the government must act indirectly.
Could the government not help facilitate and encourage local farmers and/or citizens to find a solution that could work for them? Need we rely on trucks, trains, and planes to bring food to the people from elsewhere?
Will OMAF help these under-serviced areas with portable abattoirs?
Will OMAF encourage and assist a reasonable solution for meat processing in remote communities without driving our provincial deficit into outer space?
Only time will tell.
