By Geoff Smith (@smithco on Twitter)

Cattle feeders blame tax burden for industry woes

Sep 26, 2016 | 12:04 PM

The president of a major cattle feeding operation in Lethbridge County says they’re all threatened by the tax and regulatory burdens cited by Western Feedlots .
 
Rick Paskal of Van Raay Paskal Farms Ltd. argues the municipality has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Paskal is one of a group taking Lethbridge County to court over its recently-imposed head tax on cattle feeders, saying it’s discriminatory and oversteps the county’s legal authority.
 
“There’s one or two per cent of the county that is being asked to fix up the roads,” Paskal said. “We don’t have a problem paying our fair share of taxes. That’s not what this is about here. Everybody’s talking about revenue, revenue. The issue we want to address is spending.”
 
He said all governments need to deal with the new reality of lower oil revenues, because additional taxes place his industry at a competitive disadvantage.
 
“It’s all about our ability as feedlot operators to bid on feeder cattle, and we are able to bid on feeder cattle and keep them in this country, relative to the bids that come out of the United States,” Paskal said. “My concern in the long run is, (are) these processing plants in Alberta going to have enough supply of finished cattle that come out of these feedlots to sustain their operations?
 
“We as a country, we as a province, we as a municipality have to be able to compete on a North American basis in this beef business. We can say, okay, let’s just keep taxing, taxing, taxing. I don’t want to say it again, but this is Western’s answer to all these additional costs that we’re forced to look at.”
 
Last week Western Feedlots announced it’s suspending its feeding operations in High River, Strathmore, and Mossleigh, citing the political and economic environment.
 
Lethbridge County reeve Lorne Hickey declined to comment, citing the lawsuit which was filed in June.