BRITISH COUMBIA: Mobile abattoir required slicing through a lot of red tape

19.apr.11
Vancouver Sun
Jenny Lee


Peggy Thompson has faced down more government regulations in three years than most business owners see in a lifetime.
“There are like 12 different government-type agencies in charge of my business,” says Thompson, whose Kelowna-based mobile chicken slaughterhouse has emerged victorious, viable, creatively modified and - oh yes - legally compliant, after an epic three-year quest.
“I have enough red tape to make a ball gown,” she jokes.
Okanagan Poultry Processing caters to small producers of mostly free-run poultry who have too few chickens to bring to major processing plants. Thompson takes her mobile abattoir to small farms between Grindrod and Summerland daily between May 1 and Oct. 31.
The complete list of regulating agencies and bodies she has had to deal with is daunting: “The B.C. Ministry of Environment, the Agricultural Land Commission, the Interior Health Authority, local regional districts for every place I go - and there are five,” Thompson said. “Plus the City of Kelowna, BC Centre for Disease Control, the Canada Food Inspection Agency, the B.C. Ministry of Health and the B.C. Chicken Marketing Board, the B.C. Turkey Marketing Board, the B.C. Assessment Authority. And - because we’re mobile - the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and ICBC.”
On top of all this, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspector follows Thompson around all day, every single working day, to make sure the chickens are processed safely.
Thompson, 44, has proven to be a persistent and creative negotiator.
“New agencies came out of the woodwork at different times,” she said. “I think it was just more of a stubborn thing after a while. Eventually it wasn’t about the chicken any more, it was just about ‘No way are you going to tell me no!’
“At first, [Interior Health] they wanted to inspect me as food premises like a restaurant and we had to negotiate on that. It is not a restaurant.
“The first person blew out a freak because there were feathers on the floor. ‘Dude,’ I said, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I’m like ‘Go think about it, then come back to me.’ ”
At one point, Thompson’s stainless-steel walls were rejected because they weren’t on an approved materials list.
“It wasn’t on the approved list because none of the big plants could afford to put stainless steel on the walls,” Thompson said. Turned out, approved list aside, all that was really needed was a hard, impermeable surface, so Thompson’s stainless steel eventually got the okay.
Today, Thompson’s abattoir is the only one in the province with an agreement with the CFIA that allows her to work weekends.