On Tuesday representatives of the governments of Canada and Manitoba announced just under one million dollars has been allocated through the Canada-Manitoba Western Economic Partnership to support Manitoba Pork Council working with the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment to develop a new research facility to address production efficiency and environmental challenges facing the livestock industry.

Provincial minister of entrepreneurship, training and trade Peter Bjornson says the time is always right to invest in research.

Peter Bjornson-Manitoba Minister of Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade

We've been very aggressive in Manitoba in investing in research and we're very fortunate to partner with the federal government to leverage a million dollars for more research and investment in the industry here in Manitoba so it's always a good time to invest in research.

I think given the current economy and some of the challenges that our agriculture sector has faced in the past and will likely continue to face until we resolve issues such as Country or Origin Labelling for example among others I think it's very critical that we continue to find ways to support research and innovation in the sector.

We know that there have been some challenges for livestock producers in a lot of the things that the industry tries to do they do under the very watchful eye of the community in terms of the environmental impacts.

Everyone is concerned about our environment, everyone is concerned about our groundwater, everyone is concerned about the impact of the agricultural industry on the environment as we are concerned about all industry and the impact on the environment.

That said, this is a great opportunity to find some very industry-specific solutions to some of those issues and there's certainly a lot of people that can benefit from here.

Ultimately I hope our producers benefit the most.

Construction of the new Agricultural By-Products Processing Research and Demonstration Facility is slated to begin this coming spring and it's expected to be in operation in late 2011 or early 2012.