The right-wing government of Manitoba, Canada, “chops” a valuable tree-growing facility

WinnipegFreePress

                                           

A Pineland Forest Nursery photo.

The provincial government is selling a massive tree-growing operation near Hadashville that produces and stores seeds for every type of tree grown in Manitoba. More here.

Just Say NO to 285 new hog factories in Manitoba!

Letter to the Editor

Virden Empire-Advance

May 3, 2018 01:57 PM

Rural people could wake up one morning to find a factory hog barn next door, and there will be nothing they can say or do about it if the hog industry gets its way and the Pallister government passes Bill 19, The Planning Amendment Act.

Bill 19 gives local councils and planning districts the “choice” to get rid of the mandatory conditional use approval process for large livestock operations, along with all the legal protections the public currently has. In so choosing, municipalities give away the ability to set conditions such as requiring manure storage covers and shelterbelts to attempt to control odour and require development agreements to make the hog factory pay for road building and maintenance, instead of taxpayers.

All municipalities will have to review their zoning by-laws and decide within one year if they want to control large factory hog and poultry operations, cattle and sheep feedlots on behalf of the people they are supposed to protect from harm or open the municipality to uncontrolled and unlimited livestock growth. Bill 19 changes the rules so that 25 people have to make formal objections to get a Municipal Board review. Immigrants and permanent residents are disqualified from participating. Imagine not being able to say anything about decisions that could harm your investment in a home, farm and community.

Livestock operations would merely have to get a Provincial manure storage permit and water rights licence to get building. These processes are secret and “business information” is private, protected by law. So, nobody will be able to find out if provincial officials and industry are doing things right. Last fall, many rules were weakened. For example, almost all of the oversight of the construction of manure storages was given to the engineers building them in the name of “red tape reduction”. Provincial regulators allowed manure storages to be built in high water tables, flood plains, marsh and ground water sensitive areas. This practice will get worse.

The last “line of defense” for rural people against inadequate and weakened provincial regulations are local councils who put the interest of their constituents first. Those who truly care about what happens to people’s health, quality of life and homes, non-industrial farmers livelihoods, animal welfare and our air, water and environmental health.

Why is this Bill before the legislature? Because a 2017 internal advisory brief to cabinet identified “public conflict” and “public pressure” as impediments to the hog industry getting what it wants – 285 more pig factories so that Maple Leaf and HyLife Foods can increase their profits by exporting 95 per cent of Manitoba produced pork while leaving rural people to suffer the consequences.

Why would any intelligent farmer want to invest in an industry where hog finisher producers lost money in eight out of the past nine years? Manitoba Pork Council’s numbers, not mine.

Councils and rural people must raise their voices now, loud and clear against Bill 19 before it’s too late.

Ruth Pryzner

Alexander, Manitoba

Transit union head says city of Winnipeg uninterested in grants for electric buses

The Winnipeg Free Press

The union that represents Winnipeg Transit staff says city hall is missing out on an opportunity to access loans and grants to electrify the transit fleet. Story here.

Diseases spread by ticks, mosquitoes and fleas more than tripled in the U.S. since 2004

The Washington Post

A wood tic - Manitoba, CA. PinP photo.

The warmer weather of spring and summer means the start of tick and mosquito season and the diseases they transmit, including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, West Nile and Zika. More here.

Pollution from Canadian refineries an ‘embarrassment’ compared to U.S.

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

The Irving Oil Refinery in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. Photo by Cusack5239

Sarnia’s Imperial Oil refinery emitted 10 times more fine particulate matter, seven times more carbon monoxide and 49 times more sulphur dioxide than the Detroit plant. More here.

Melbourn's water supply at risk due to "collapse" of forests caused by logging.

The Guardian

Logging in Australia. Photo by Peter Campbell

Tree-felling helped trigger ‘hidden collapse’ of mountain ash forests, ecologists say. More here.

Even familiar birds at risk of extinction, new study finds

BirdLife

INTERNATIONAL

A White-crowned sparrow. Photo by Wolfgang Wander

The 2018 State of the World’s Birds report, which provides a comprehensive look at the health of bird populations globally, has found that the extinction crisis has spread so far that even some well-known species are now in danger. More here.

A British vessel leads £20m mission to melting Antarctic glacier

The Guardian

British and US scientists are to examine the risk of the Thwaites glacier collapsing, which is already responsible for a 4% sea-level rise. More here.

Thwaites Glacier. European Space Agency

Help Rural Manitobans Shut the Door on More Pig Factories: Stop Bill 19.

Expectant Moms spend their pregnancies in heartless, confining steel crates.

PLEASE SIGN!

In Huge Win for Pollinators, People & the Planet , EU Bans Bee-killing Pesticides. WHAT ABOUT CANADA? ASK YOUR LOCAL POLITICIAN!!!

Common

Dreams

Bumble bees forage on chives in an organic garden in Manitoba, CA. PinP photo.

"Authorizing neonicotinoids during a quarter of a century was a mistake and led to an environmental disaster. Today's vote is historic." More here.

What is Bill 19 - The Planning Amendment Act (Efficiency in Planning)?

WHAT WILL BILL 19 MEAN

FOR RURAL MANITOBA? 

Photo - Mercy for Animals, Canada.

It is a series of changes to allow two hog processing corporations Maple Leaf and HyLife Foods, to increase their shareholder profits at the expense of rural homeowners, taxpayers, family farms, degraded air, environment, water quality and pig welfare.

Why Bill 19?

The Manitoba Department of Agriculture advised the Pallister cabinet in a 2017 internal brief that 285 more new barns were needed to “ensure an adequate supply of hogs to the Maple Leaf and HyLife Food slaughter facilities.” And, that “public conflict,” “public pressure” and the locally controlled conditional use approval process are in the way of “growth of the industry.”

How will Bill 19 help the hog industry expand?

Bill 19 will silence the public. It will allow municipal leaders to get rid of conditional use hearings and Provincial Technical Reviews for factory hog barns. If local politicians take this route, the Province will have the only and final say on where hog factories can be built. The Government of Manitoba is and has been both a promoter and regulator of the hog industry.  Bill 19 is the latest move to promote and de-regulate hog industry expansion.

Why is Provincial control a problem?

If conditional use disappears, local councils and rural people will not have any say in how factory hog operations perform. Municipalities will have no means of monitoring, enforcing conditions, and protecting local people and the environment from hog operations.

Won’t the hog industry still have to follow some rules?

Yes, once municipal control is surrendered, the industry will still have to follow a few rules to get a manure storage permit and a water rights license. But, these processes are secret and protected by the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act. Applications and approvals for these permits and licenses are “private business information.” The public and municipal officials will have no idea what the province is doing.

What about Manure Management?

The over-application of phosphorus, even with provincially required manure management plans, will continue. Current rules allow phosphorus loading on spread fields up to 826lbs/acre of soil test P₂O₅. The average annual crop removal rate of P₂O₅ by Manitoba crops is reported to be 20.47lbs/acre. The provincial government has stated that water is harmed when soil test P₂O₅  is 276lbs/acre. 285 more factory farms and millions more finished hogs will exacerbate the long-term water quality problems we experience in surface waterbodies. Millions of tax dollars have already been spent on Lake Winnipeg’s nutrient problem.

What is the Province’s track record?

During the last round of hog industry expansion, provincial approvals to build cheap, seeping manure storages were issued in areas with high water tables (e.g. the Interlake), flood plains, marshes, and groundwater sensitive areas, and where provincial officials knew there were not enough acres to sustainably spread manure.  Recently, Provincial officials at the RM of Oakview’s conditional use hearing advocated on behalf of the hog barn applicant for the council’s approval of another cheap, seepage prone, outdated type of earthen manure storage. They would have allowed it to be built illegally on a surface water drainage area. In part, because Oakview rejected the application, the Province changed the rules making such sites legal. Manitoba Agriculture has admitted that since 2012, taxpayers have spent over $19 million to fix problems with these outdated storages.

Can Municipalities keep the conditional use process and all the protections contained in the Planning Act?

Yes. Bill 19 requires all municipalities to make a decision within a year of it becoming law. A simple resolution to keep conditional use is all that is required.

What if a municipality wants to remove conditional use and open its arms to hog factories that they can’t control?

Development Plan by-laws and Zoning by-laws must be changed. Public hearings will have to be held on both by-laws. The mechanism for changing Development Plans will remain the same, but Bill 19 makes it harder for people to object to zoning by-law changes. The Bill requires 25 people, instead of one person, to register formal objections at both 1^st and 2^nd reading of any zoning by-law, proposing the removal of conditional use for 300+ animal unit livestock operations, to get a Municipal Board hearing. However, only Canadian citizens, eligible for election to Council, can have a say. Any person such as a permanent resident or recent immigrant who has invested in a home, farm, and their community will be denied a voice.  A place for the expression of Indigenous people’s concerns have not been considered in Bill 19.

But, isn’t Hog factory production profitable and its expansion good for Manitoba?

Consider this: the Manitoba Pork Council reports that finishing hog producers lost money in eight of the last nine years, ending in 2017. Meanwhile, Maple Leaf’s profits in 2016 tripled in 2017, and the 49.9% Japanese owned HyLife Foods expanded its Neepawa plant with taxpayer help. So, expansion is profitable, but not for hog producers. And, what are the social, environmental, water quality and public health costs of such expansion for Manitobans? Do we want rural communities divided by the Pallister government’s promotion of the hog industry with off-loading of the political fallout onto municipal leaders, our neighbours?

What will happen to the role of Conservation Districts as Watershed Planning Authorities and in encouraging sustainable land use practices?

It is expected that Conservation Districts will be facing a steeper uphill climb to preserve and attempt to repair damage done by unfettered and minimally regulated hog industry expansion.

A request has been made to Maple Leaf and HyLife Foods to support volunteer efforts to assist in the development and implementation of citizen water quality monitoring of phosphorus in ditches and creeks. To date, there has been no response.  Anyone interested in helping with this endeavour, or for more information and assistance with taking action on Bill 19, please contact:

creativehealthconsulting@gmail.com; vickiburns@mts.net or moondog@inethome.ca or go to https://hogwatchmanitoba.ca