The Clean Environment Commission has set December as its target for presenting a final report to the provincial government on the environmental sustainability of the Manitoba hog industry.

Public hearings concluded late last month and the deadline for written submission passed last week.

Commission Chair Terry Sargeant reports interest in the process has been strong.

Terry Sargeant-Manitoba Clean Environment Commission

We had 17 days of hearings, we heard from 194 different individuals, people who were very actively involved in the hog industry including many big farmers and the big companies that operate hog production facilities in Manitoba.

We heard from a lot of Hutterite Colonies, we heard from small hog farmers and we heard from people who were opposed to the industry, some of them people who were opposed to what they call factory farming in general, people who had individual concerns such as a neighboring farm that emitted odors that people found unpleasant.

We heard from other people who had concerns with the whole approval process.

Outside of the hearing process we've had many written submissions, some of them with a lot of detail that have been submitted to us.

We're going through that, reading and digesting all of that.

Sargeant says the commission plans to meet with a number of experts, examine literature reviews on the best science in a number of areas and tour three hog operations including a Hutterite colony operation, a hoop barn operation and one of Puratone's barns.

He says once the expert evidence has been submitted, by about the end of June, the panel will read and digest it, meet to consider the issues and then being coming to some conclusions.