The Manitoba government’s “pause” on approvals for new or expanding hog operations will extend to Feb. 29, while the province ponders a report on the industry’s sustainability.
The province has received its long-awaited report from the provincial Clean Environment Commission (CEC), reviewing its environmental protection measures already in place relating to hog production.
The CEC report is to be publicly released by the end of February, along with the Manitoba government’s response, the province said in a release Wednesday. The “pause,” as the province called it, is to run until the end of the month to allow the province time to study the report.
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The review was commissioned in November 2006, at which time the province was facing public opposition from some areas to what was then a $200 million proposal for a major hog slaughter plant in Winnipeg. Maple Leaf Foods was then also ramping up production at its Brandon, Man. hog slaughter plant.
The province put up the ban on new hog barns and expansions while the commission performed its review, which included public consultations across the province during 2007. The scope of the commission’s regulatory review included:
- laws’ and regulations’ effectiveness for the purpose of managing hog production in an environmentally-sustainable manner;
- efforts underway in other jurisdictions in Canada, as well as in neighbouring Minnesota and North Dakota;
- sustainable management of hog production in the province;
- making recommendations to the provincial conservation minister on any improvements that may be needed for a sustainable level of hog production; and
- a review of an earlier report by the provincial conservation department on the same topic.
“We need to know from the CEC and Manitobans themselves that what we’re proposing (for water protection regulations in the province) adequately addresses the sustainability of the industry over the long term,” Conservation Minister Stan Struthers said at the time.
Hog production in Manitoba increased by 104 per cent between 1994 and 1999, and another 55 per cent from 2002 to 2005, the province said at the time. Maple Leaf opened its Brandon plant in 1999 and more recently consolidated its Canadian pork slaughter operations there.
Critics at the time viewed the “pause,” after years of rapid expansion, as a gift to the governing NDP’s environment-conscious grassroots, many of whom opposed intensive livestock development, and as a bid to curry favour with urban voters — especially those opposed to the now-shelved OlyWest hog plant proposal for Winnipeg. Gary Doer’s New Democrats won a third consecutive majority government in an election the following May.
