Last month the Clean Environment Commission held public scoping meetings in Friedensfeld, Winnipeg and Morden to gather direction on the issues that should be examined during its review of the environmental sustainability of Manitoba's hog industry.

Commission Chair Terry Sargent says input was received from a variety of people, including those in the industry, Manitoba Pork Council and Keystone Agricultural Producers, from environmental groups, from animal welfare groups and from a number of individual farmers.

Terry Sargent-Manitoba Clean Environment Commission

How we'll be using it is to pick out the key issues that were identified by many of the people who presented to us and identifying the issues that we will be examining in some depth when we get into the main body of our review.

Ultimately what we will be looking at and the degree to which we look into specific issues will be a decision of the panel.

It's, to some extent, a judgment call by the members of the panel referring to what we heard from the public and also referring to the mandate given to us by the Minister of Conservation.

We're starting to narrow the issues and, as I noted a moment or two ago, they will be indented in a paper that will be posted on our web site (www.cecmanitoba.ca).

The timing, we've already started to set up meetings throughout March and April throughout much of southern Manitoba.

The first meeting is to be on March 5 in Winnipeg.

Our work plan identifies a final report by December of this year.

Sargent admits it's a huge issue that could probably be reviewed for years but he says that's not the intent at all and he believes the panel can meet the December deadline.

ThePigSite News Desk