Canadian farm ministers, who are eyeing both direct financial aid and loan guarantees to help the beef industry in its struggle with mad cow disease, said they hope to come up with a relief plan by the middle of this week.
Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief emerged from an emergency meeting with his provincial counterparts saying they had not worked out a price tag for the programme - or who would pay for it - but recognised they had to move quickly to help an industry that is losing millions of dollars a day.
Ottawa and the provincial governments will look at the C$400 million direct aid package proposed by premiers of western provinces last week, as well as forgivable loan guarantees, Mr Vanclief told reporters after emerging from talks at a hotel near Vancouver.
"We know the urgency of this... We know we need to reach a conclusion on this by mid-week," Mr Vanclief said.
The beef industry estimates it has lost up to C$27.5 million each day since May 20, when international borders were closed to Canadian cattle and beef because of a single confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
Mr Vanclief could offer little encouragement on when the United States, Japan and other major export markets might lift their bans, saying only they were studying the results of an international panel's review of Canada's efforts to locate the source of the disease.
"I wish I knew the timeline (for restarting trade)," Mr Vanclief said. "Could be a long time, could be a short time."
Beef industry officials, who have complained that Ottawa appeared to be ignoring their claims that the situation was a disaster, said they were encouraged that the federal government appeared to recognise the need to act quickly.
Beef ranchers said they were receiving between C$1.05 and C$1.07 a pound for cattle before the mad cow crisis, but are now being paid only 75 Canadian cents - less than it cost to raise the animals.
"The ship is going down... We can't afford to wait weeks, we've got days," said Neil Jahnke, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.
Mr Jahnke said the industry was was also pleased that Ottawa appeared willing to look at providing direct aid. Earlier proposals that would have relied strictly on loan guarantees would only have hurt farmers, Mr Jahnke said.
"When you're in trouble the last thing you want to do is put on more debt. It was like throwing a stone to a drowning man," he told Reuters.
Mr Jahnke and other beef industry officials said they were still awaiting details of the plans being looked at by agriculture ministers, including Mr Vanclief's suggestion that some loans might be gradually forgiven if the trade bans continue for a long time.
The direct aid proposed by western premiers calls for businesses to take a 10 per cent deductible on their claims, with the federal government paying 90 percent of the remainder of the claim and the provincial government paying 10 per cent.