"Bill 24 Stinks!" Manitoba Green Party Leader - James Beddome.
Winnipeg Free Press
WINNIPEG - Green Party leader James Beddome wasn't the least bit subtle Wednesday about what he thinks of the Pallister government's red tape reduction bill.
"This bill stinks!"
Beddome declared to a rally on the steps of the Manitoba legislature.
Beddome declared to a rally on the steps of the Manitoba legislature.
"It's part of a Conservative agenda that tells us all regulation is bad," Beddome said. "Government efficiency means don't do our homework; if there's no data, there's no problem." Environmental activists led by the Wilderness Committee and Hog Watch Manitoba protested Bill 24, an omnibus bill going to public hearings sometime later this month, warning that within its reductions to regulations were changes that would allow the expansion of industrial hog barns that would further jeopardize the health of Lake Winnipeg.
Speakers could not agree on how many sets of regulations are threatened by red tape reduction - 12, 14, and 15 were all cited
- but did agree that lifting the former NDP government's moratorium on hog barn expansion will produce more toxins that will eventually wash into Lake Winnipeg.
"We're not opposed to raising pigs in Manitoba," said Hog Watch head Vicki Burns, but it must be done humanely and without harming the environment.
"We haven't seen the improvements in Lake Winnipeg we need to see," said Eric Reder, campaign coordinator for Wilderness Manitoba.
NDP environment critic Rob Altemeyer accused Premier Brian Pallister of copying Stephen Harper's playbook, by packing so many issues into an omnibus bill in hopes some would slip by unnoticed.
Comments
Large -scale corporate hog production is one of the most contentious issues to confront Manitoba and North America in recent history. Production of this kind causes air pollution-noxious odours, toxic gases and drug pollution. As well,
antibiotics, growth- promoting chemicals and other veterinary drugs end up in animals themselves and enter the environment through their manure and urine, contaminating the water, the soil and our food.
The social fabric of many communities has been ripped apart by controversy between opposing views of these operations.
Hog factories can no longer be considered as farming or agriculture, or even agri-business.
This is industry- pure and simple. This is not a natural or inevitable evolution of agriculture. It is a deliberate plan by a handful of
corporations to profit from consolidation and ultimately control the industry, at the expense of our environment and Lake Winnipeg.
Unfortunately, the government of Manitoba appears to be in lock-step with the Industry at the present time.
The committee hearings on Bill 24, the Red Tape Reduction and Government Efficiency Act, will be coming up soon and I, as a former Hog Watch director
am hoping that many of the Hog Watch and Lake Winnipeg supporters will register to make a short presentation to the committee and will encourage
others to participate as well. Please do your part.
Your participation is necessary and very important to "Help Save Our Lake".