The Alberta Beef Producers have sent their policy priorities to parties running in the election saying they support the repeal of Bill 6.

Chair Charlie Christie says the farm safety legislation was not created with enough consultation, and they'd like to see it replaced with better legislation created with more industry input.

"At one point in time, as an organization our message was, 'We've done some really good work here, lets not throw the whole thing out.' As we move forward, we're recognizing the difficulty in actually fishing out what's good about it."

Christie says labour and safety legislation needs to recognize agriculture as a completely different business than manufacturing or any other kind of production.

In the Alberta Beef Producers policy outline, they say they'd also like to see Bill 17 scrapped allowing farm and ranch workers to form unions and strike.

Christie says unions have no place in agriculture as strikes lead to animal welfare issues.

"In a feedlot, a finishing lot, where cattle have to be fed, once they're on a finishing diet, if you leave them off feed for any length of time, you start having health issues and the cost to the producer would be huge."

He says the same goes for other sectors such as dairy where cattle need to be milked, and crop production when quick action is needed during favourable harvest weather to get the crop off.

Christie says the organization will treat whichever party forms Government after the Provincial election on Tuesday, April 16, like a new Government.

To view Alberta Beef Producer's full list of policies, you can their website.

 

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