Early End to Pause in Swine Barn Expansion Possible

Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 2259

The Manitoba Clean Environment Commission is promising to review of the environmental sustainability of Manitoba's hog industry in as timely a manner as possible.

New swine barn development or expansion is being suspended in Manitoba while the Clean Environment Commission reviews pending environmental legislation and the environmental sustainability of the hog industry.

CEC Chair Terry Sargeant says its not the commission's mandate to impede the industry but rather to ensure it can prosper in an environmentally sustainable manner.

"Probably the key issues we will look at in that investigation are matters relating to water and matters relating to manure management and other matters that we haven't quite defined yet.

Part of our process is that we're going to hold probably three days of hearings in January and invite the public to help us define our mandate.

We're going to hold what we're calling scoping meetings and inviting people to tell us what they think we should look at and how, in their opinion, we should go about doing that.

We would hope that coming out of those scoping meetings, we plan to prepare a discussion paper that would be widely circulated and then hold wide ranging public hearings through March and perhaps into April.

Following that the process will take us to a review of what we hear from the public, a review of any literature that covers this area and then we would lead into report writing and circulating etceteras.

The time lines for that I really can not guesstimate at this time but one thing we have committed is that we will be expedient as possible but we still must be as thorough as necessary."

Sargeant says it's not in the plan at this time but it is possible preliminary results of the investigation could result in recommendations that could end the pause before the final report is presented.

Staff Farmscape.Ca

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