Livestock producers are breathing sighs of relief after the Manitoba government announced barns are going to be considered “farm” buildings again.
It was good news announced at the Keystone Agricultural Producers annual meeting Jan. 25, and president Dan Mazier was delighted to hear it.
“It’s more than hog barns (affected),” said Mazier.
“It’s the whole livestock industry. Anybody that has to build a barn — dairy, chicken — the regulations on livestock are horrendous in this province.”
The new rules will class livestock buildings as farm buildings that don’t follow the onerous light industrial building standards imposed on factories, assembly plants and warehouses. The new regulations will be contained in the Manitoba Farm Building Code.
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The changes will affect fire control systems and restrictions on where entrances and exits can be located and will allow flexibility in many areas of barn construction.
The new Progressive Conservative premier, Brian Pallister, has made reducing red tape the top priority of his government, and this move on barns and other farm structures fits in with the drive to reduce both costs and frustrations with regulations.
The previous New Democratic Party government imposed many new and toughened regulations on farmers. Almost every area of farming was touched, from manure application to drainage. For example, coal-fired boilers were eliminated during the NDP’s 17 years in power.
Pallister has not announced how many “red tape” regulations will be cut, reduced or affected, but Mazier said all livestock producers will likely consider improving, upgrading, replacing or adding new barns if it seems easier to do so.
In a roundtable discussion at Manitoba Ag Days, livestock producer organizations were unanimous in telling provincial Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler that red tape was strangling their members’ ability to renew their industries.
“Every one of them had tried in the past to build a new barn, renew themselves, do the right thing, and regulations stood in their way every time,” said Mazier.
“This has been going on for decades. It’s changing. There’s talk about red tape reduction. It’s very real, and it’s going to bring our province back to a competitive place where we can actually expand our livestock industry.”
