Despite a history of “butting heads,” the chair of the Manitoba Pork Council said the hog industry can work with Stan Struthers, the province’s new minister of agriculture.
Karl Kynoch said Manitoba’s hog producers didn’t always see eye to eye with Struthers when he was conservation minister. But he respected Struthers’ open door policy and Kynoch believes the new ag minister will adjust to his new role.
“I’ve never had a problem to get in to meet with minister Struthers in the past to talk about the issues,” said Kynoch.
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“He’s now sitting in a different portfolio where’s he going to have to fight for producers and represent them. From my past experience in working with minister Struthers, I have the confidence that hopefully he’ll be able to do that.”
Struthers moved from the department of conservation to become agriculture minister last week, as part of a cabinet shuffle by new Manitoba premier Greg Selinger.
Rosann Wowchuk, who has led the province’s agriculture department since 1999, is now finance minister. Former MP turned provincial MLA Bill Blaikie will move into Struthers role in conservation.
The new agriculture minister lives in Dauphin and represents the constituency of Dauphin-Roblin, but doesn’t have an agriculture background. He was a principal and teacher in the region around Dauphin before being elected to the provincial legislature in 1995.
The lack of farm credentials is not a huge concern for Ian Wishart, president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers.
“We’ve been saying for some time it’s more about the rural life than just about agriculture. We need rural infrastructure for our farmers too, so I think he has appreciation of that,” Wishart said. “They (Manitoba’s NDP) only had a limited range to choose from… and he was probably the one with the strongest agricultural background.”
Struthers was the NDP’s deputy agriculture critic in the 1990s and while at the conser-vation department the new ag minister said he worked on issues that crossed over into farming.
“We’ve dealt with a whole lot of issues that cross not just over agriculture and conservation lines, but water stewardship lines and intergovernmental affairs lines,” Struthers said, moments after a swearing in ceremony for new ministers at Manitoba’s legislature Nov. 3.
One of those issues was Bill 17, a ban on hog barn expansion in southeastern Manitoba and the Interlake. As conservation minister Struthers said Bill 17 was needed to protect the province’s lakes and rivers.
The Manitoba Pork Council launched an aggressive public campaign to defeat the legislation, calling it the anti-farm bill. Last fall when the bill became law hog producers rallied at the legislature, holding signs accusing the provincial government of killing Manitoba’s hog industry.
In spite of that difficult and recent history, Kynoch is eager to work with the new minister.
“We want to meet with him as soon as possible to make sure he’s up to speed on some of the challenges for the industry,” he said. “We haven’t always agreed… we’ve butted heads quite a bit. But at the same time we’ve always been able to meet up on the issues and I’d say we’ve had an open door to meet with (Struthers).”
For his part, the new ag minister said he wants to listen.
“I think all sectors of farming are challenged these days… I want to begin by meeting with each of the groups involved and really outlining some of the things that can be done.”
