Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) is examining their options to stay with or leave the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA).
“Back in the summer, the Alberta Beef Producer board and executive started to reach out to delegates and directors within the organization and have discussions about where we were at with CCA and working with Marketing Council on some of the recommendations,” said Doug Roxburgh, chair of ABP at a producers meeting in Leduc on Jan. 26.
WHY IT MATTERS: Alberta Beef Producers’ withdrawal from the Canadian Cattle Association could have big financial implications for both sides.
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ABP is not an organization or association, rather it’s a commission that makes it bound to regulations put forward by Marketing Council on behalf of the minister of agriculture and irrigation.
“There was a lot of discussion about the withdrawal itself. I think the biggest thing about the withdrawal comes back to the finance side of things. Right now, ABP has made a three-year contract with CCA, and we pay CCA on retained marketings,” said Roxburgh, who ranches near Bentley.
The finances
A certain percentage of Albertan beef producers ask for their check off dollars to be returned to them, which is an option available to all producers.
In previous negotiations, prior to the agreement that ABP and CCA are in right now, ABP was still paying CCA on full marketing.
“Even if we gave producers their 53 cents back, we were still contributing that 53 cents to CCA. Our goal was that we would stay on retained marketings with CCA,” said Roxburgh.
CCA began to discuss the desire for an increase in check off dollars, with funds essentially coming from the provinces. Since it has the largest number of cattle producers, Alberta contributes the most.
In March 2026, CCA will vote on their new budget, and if they decide to charge ABP full marketings, ABP is essentially bound to pay them back.
“The big reason for the withdrawal was essentially to put kind of a buffer, stopgap between us and CCA. It gave CCA the ability to vote on whatever budget they wanted, but we were no longer tied to anything that could financially hurt ABP,” said Roxburgh.
The proposed withdrawal gave ABP the time to organize and work out a proper budget going forward.
“We want to stay on retained marketings, but we’ve also agreed that every province should have the option to retain. We don’t want Alberta to be special in terms of how our agreement looks,” he said.
CCA is currently fully financed and does run a surplus. The organization also has operating reserves.
The governance
The discussion has also been about creating a new governance structure within CCA. ABP currently holds 24 seats at the CCA.
“If you run the math, we’ll never get to 50 per cent representation out of Alberta,” Roxburgh said.
“We don’t want to have a board bigger than it is today.”
Provinces such as Quebec and British Columbia, as well as the Maritimes region need at least one seat on the board.
All the provincial organizations involved with CCA were able to get together and discuss potential changes for CCA at meetings that were held last December.
“There are a lot of great ideas coming out of a lot of the provinces,” said Roxburgh.
“There have been a lot of suggestions about how CCA will look going forward, and other provinces have been huge contributors. They’ve been there every step of the way,” he said.
ABP now has a structure to do a series of votes with their board and delegates to see if they want to re-enter CCA.
Roxburgh said there is no guaranteed timeline.
“July 31 is when our current agreement runs out. We will say CCA has an operating reserve that gives them quite a lot of money to still operate without making any changes to their organization for quite some time. I think it’s important that ABP makes sure everything’s in place,” he said.
People have said it is trivial for ABP to pull out of CCA for financial reasons, he added.
“There was a potential that it was going to have a negative impact on ABP, somewhere between $400,000 to $600,000 a year, which would decimate ABP the way it is today. We’ve got great structure in place, if for whatever reason, we don’t get everything resolved with CCA. We have the ability to do our part in Ottawa,” Roxburgh said.
Government officials, both provincial and federal, have reached out to ABP to offer support, and there have been collaborations between ABP and CCA.
“I’m very confident we’re in a good place that way,” he said.
