KAMLOOPS — The president of the BC General Employees’ Union says it’s agreed that agri-food inspectors should be deemed an essential service after ranchers and meat processors complained an ongoing public service strike was threatening the industry.

Paul Finch says he only found out about the problem on Wednesday and blames the government for not making the workers essential sooner.

He also says the union was not aware the government had designated the inspectors’ assembly point at a building that was being picketed as part of the B.C. public service strike that is in its second week.

He says they don’t normally work out of that building.

BC Cattlemen’s Association director Paul Devick had sent a letter to the province saying the strike had resulted in a work stoppage by agri-food inspectors in some areas.

Premier David Eby told an unrelated press conference he agrees that agriculture should be considered an essential service, as it had been in previous labour disputes, and the government would go back to the Labour Relations Board to make “exactly that request.”

The ranchers’ association letter said the stoppages had disrupted meat processing at slaughterhouses, harming the ranch and agri-food industry.

It urged essential-service status for the agriculture sector and supporting services to ensure continued access to meat inspection services.

But Eby said food supplies were not being interrupted in any case, as the vast majority of slaughterhouses in B.C. were federally inspected.

“I just want to reassure British Columbians this is less a food security issue and more an animal welfare issue,” Eby said during an unrelated press conference Thursday.

“This is about making sure that we’re avoiding unnecessary suffering among animal populations and making sure that farmers that are dependent on these provincially inspected facilities are able to continue operating.”

Eby also said there was a process in place to allow facilities to continue operating in the interim but did not specify what the process is.

Devick said in his letter that ranchers “depend on the sale and processing of their product to maintain their operations,” and slaughterhouses are often family-run businesses.

He also said a number of youth working in ranching were set to sell their beef projects at the upcoming BC Ag Expo.

“Many of these youth use the proceeds of their sale project to fund their post-secondary education,” Devick wrote. “The sale of their projects is in jeopardy if they cannot be processed.”

Job action by the BCGEU includes pickets at government offices and other sites across the province, including Victoria, Surrey, Prince George, Kamloops and Kelowna.

The union says more than 4,000 of 34,000 or so members in the B.C. public service are striking.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2025.