Yukon government takes a step back from abattoir business

The summer of 2023 marks a major shift in the nearly 20-year run for the Yukon government's mobile abattoir.

The subsidized service offered a government stamp of approval on locally produced meats, allowing many farmers in the territory to sell their meat commercially for the first time.

The use of the abattoir rose steadily over 15 years, peaking in 2021, with a total of 901 inspected slaughters.

Barb Drury says she worked for years to bring the service to the territory, and it allowed her farm to expand.

"It was the best thing for our industry," says Drury. "And once it got going, we even brought more animals up to have over the summer, and then to slaughter in the fall. So we were supplying more people with really good quality meat."

Drury says she found out that the government's mobile service would no longer be operating in the spring of 2023, and made the decision to scale back for the summer.

"You don't want to go and do like, 15 cows yourself really," says Drury. "Not at our age, anyway. This just means that the availability of good, locally and ethically grown meat is going to shrink."

In August, Drury and her husband slaughtered their five pigs on the farm. In October, they slaughtered four cows. As the meat from these animals has not been inspected, the pair won't be able to sell it to restaurants or through stores.

The Yukon government's Mobile Abattoir Procedures Manual states that, "an outstanding benefit of mobile abattoirs is that the animals being slaughtered are subjected to a minimum of stress because there is no requirement to load or transport animals, and because there is no interaction with unfamiliar animals or humans."

This is why Drury chose not take her animals to one of the two commercial abattoirs now operating near Whitehorse.

Back in 2006, Drury and other farmers had very limited options. According to the Yukon government, there was only one commercial abattoir operating in the territory at that time, and that was near Stewart Crossing.

The Farm Gate, near Marsh Lake, opened up an abattoir in 2019 to deal with their own processing needs.

"The amount of people wanting to use it has been more than I expected," says owner Cain Vangell. "In October, we started processing pork as well as poultry, and sheep as well. So it's been quite crazy the last number of weeks."

Vangell says the abattoir runs five to six days per week in the late fall, and one day per week the rest of the year. He says having the business allows him pay for two full-time employees.

Kirk Price works on agriculture with the Yukon government.

He says the government did not want its mobile abattoir competing with private operations, like Farm Gate.

"Originally, the plan was to operate the mobile abattoir for five years, to support the growth of the livestock sector," says Price. "So, it lasted longer than expected, but now we're at a point where we have two private abattoirs that are open for public service, and a third coming online. We're getting out of the business, so they have every chance to succeed."

Price says the Yukon government wants to see the livestock sector continue to grow.

"North of Carmacks, and around Mayo, the industry looks a lot like it did in Whitehorse 20 years ago," says Price. "So, the government's mobile abattoir will continue to serve that area."

The mobile abattoir will also continue to operate to process farm-raised game animals — bison and elk for example — because regulations state they can not be moved for slaughter.

Also, the third private abattoir that is trying to get up and running in the Whitehorse area aims to be mobile.

According to Price, if that operation falls through, the government will not rule out the possibility of bringing back wider access to its mobile abattoir in the future.