Biosecurity is an increasingly prominent concern to the Canadian agri-food sector given heightened public awareness of animal welfare and the continued importance of trade. Due to the potential for large-scale animal depopulation and uncertain trade flow restrictions, the economic costs and animal welfare implications of disease outbreaks have prompted efforts to control their spread within and across trade boundaries. We build a partial equilibrium model of the beef supply chain in Ontario to examine the welfare impacts of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak inside and outside the province. Somewhat surprisingly, economic impacts for Ontario are not dramatically different between an outbreak within the province versus an outbreak in western Canada: losses total $245 and $217 million, respectively. When the outbreak occurs outside Ontario and provincial zoning is recognized, losses total only $93 million. Restrictions on international and, inter-and intra-provincial movement of livestock and beef products are the main driver of losses. A strength of our model is that we are able to disaggregate these impacts across the various market participants (i.e., producers, processors, retailers, consumers). Retailers and consumers incur little to no losses as imports from the United States easily fill shortages in supply. Production losses from livestock movement restrictions and depopulation are partially offset by higher prices, while processors bear the brunt of the losses due to reduced supply and higher livestock prices. La biosécurité revêt de plus en plus d'importance dans le secteur agroalimentaire canadien en raison de la sensibilisation accrue du public au bien-être animal et de l'importance soutenue du commerce. Compte tenu de l'éventualité d'un dépeuplement animalà grandeéchelle et de mesures pouvant restreindre le flux deséchanges commerciaux, le coûtéconomique deséclosions de maladies et leurs répercussions sur le bien-être animal ont stimulé les efforts afin de maîtriser leur propagation tantà l'intérieur qu'à l'extérieur des frontières commerciales. Dans la présenteétude, nous avonsélaboré un modèle d'équilibre partiel de la chaîne d'approvisionnement du boeuf en OntarioCanadian Journal of Agricultural Economics 65 (2017) INTRODUCTIONThe economic costs and animal welfare implications of disease outbreaks-such as the potential for large-scale animal depopulation and uncertain trade flow restrictionshave prompted efforts to control their spread within and across trade boundaries. As a small open trading economy, Canada's beef sector depends on cross-border movement of both livestock and animal products, and thus animal disease outbreaks can be especially harmful. Klein and Le Roy (2010) estimated the 2003 bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in Alberta caused $4.06 billion in losses to the Canadian beef industry; the temporary closure of live cattle export markets accounted for 96.5% of these losses. A similar outbreak today could have even larger consequences owing to the growth in agrifood tra...

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This paper is about Ontario’s fresh water resources and the current policy context promoting the sustainability of this resource. Originally, management of water resources in Ontario was heavily influenced through well-defined private property rights and a common law tradition originating in England, known as riparian rights. However, in recent history, a series of legislation has emerged out of concern over water management following the Walkerton tragedy, in which several members of the community died from E. coli poisoning discovered in the region’s drinking water. The free market approach endorses the abolition of direct government intervention in the management of the water resources. Riparian rights can provide protection from exploitation of water resources, and has historically proven to hold damaging parties accountable for harmful behaviour. This report intends to endorse this approach and the exercise of individual’s riparian rights to successfully manage Ontario’s fresh water resources.