TORONTO – Ernie Hardeman is part of an Ontario Conservative government that for half a decade has preached and practised the gospel of shrinking government and letting business get on with doing what it does best.
Yet the provincial agriculture minister is poised to introduce legislation that will require intensive farming operators to comply with tougher “nutrient management” rules.
Hardeman makes no apologies for using the threat of government sanctions to deal with farm environmental issues.
“There is a concern out there, a big concern,” he said in an interview. “Most farmers are responsible and go the extra mile but the public needs to know that this is what will be required of all farmers.”
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His departmental officials are finishing consultations this summer and legislation is expected in the autumn session. However, some of the new rules are known:
- Standards for farm environmental practices (primarily manure management) will be graded according to size of the operation. Hardeman said it could mean proposals for a new large hog barn or feedlot would require a detailed plan for manure disposal, including a large enough land base to absorb the effluent.
- Tougher rules about where buildings or manure piles can be located. It would begin with new constructions but is expected to apply later to existing farms.
- Strict construction standards for new facilities, including the possibility that liners be required under manure storage areas to prevent leaching.
- A move to make farm environmental plans, now voluntary, a mandatory feature of the business.
- Better environmental record-keeping by farmers.
- Rules that allow government to impose stiff fines and assess clean-up costs for operators in violation of the rules.
Hardeman said the legislation is not necessarily a step toward limiting the size of intensive livestock operations in the province.
“But practically, the land base required to deal with the manure from large operations may be an effective limit on their size anyway,” he said.
The minister said rules will be patterned on the standards already set by some of Ontario’s better environmental farmers.
“We have 17,000 or 18,000 farmers who have been involved in the farm environmental plan program,” he said. “That is great. Of course, that means 50,000 have not and it is those farmers we are looking at.”
The province has been caught up in a summer of intense worry about the impact of farm operations on water quality after the water system in the town of Walkerton was contaminated, likely by manure.
At least six people died and scores were sent to hospital with E. coli-related illness.
Since that episode, the water in many other communities also has shown signs of contamination.
