Relief of sorts is on the way for laid-off beef industry workers in Alberta, who are now eligible for short-term training and grants to help bridge the two-week gap before unemployment benefits kick in.
Financial aid in the form of interest-free loans and compensation for ranchers and feedlot owners is also in the cards, with details expected to be hammered out this week.
Alberta Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford has announced a new voluntary program which will allow job-related workplace safety training and a relief grant immediately upon layoff for workers directly affected by the mad-cow scare and closure of the U.S. border to beef and other ruminant products.
“I think it’s very, very important that we try and keep as many employees as we can somehow attached to the industry itself,” Dunford said during a press conference in Calgary last Thursday.
Workers who have been laid off and are eligible for Employment Insurance can now attend a training program during the two-week waiting period before their EI benefits start. “This is a short-term solution for employees to what we hope will be a short-term disruption in the beef industry,” added Dunford.
At the end of the training program, workers will receive $66 a day for each day they have attended, up to a maximum of $330 per week. The program will remain in effect as long as the U.S. border remains closed over fears of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Dunford said the estimated $1 million in funding for the program will be paid from federal funds under an existing labour market development agreement.
The federal government’s loan plan, he predicted, will go over less well with cattlemen and feedlot owners.
‘The margins are so slim there, to ask them to take on a huge additional debt load to what they already have is going to be very difficult,” he said.
It’s estimated Canada’s beef industry is losing up to $20 million each day the border remains closed.
This past Friday, federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief announced he was considering a request by western premiers for a cash compensation package. A decision is expected this week.
Meanwhile, Stewart paid a visit to Lakeside Packers in Brooks on Friday to announce a $9.8-million work-sharing agreement that will allow the company to protect the jobs of 900 workers over 26 weeks.
Lakeside Packers, a division of Lakeside Farm Industries, operates Alberta’s largest beef-packing plant with 2,450 workers. The deal will see the work week reduced by 50 per cent, allowing employees to remain in Brooks while collecting EI benefits to compensate for their lost wages.The two-week period to collect EI has also been waived.
“This program truly is a win-win situation,” said Lakeside Packers plant manger Brent Altwasser.
