The poisonous relations between Manitoba pig farmers and the provincial government are becoming less toxic, according to the chair of the Manitoba Pork Council.
And while the government is not offering to alleviate any of the legislative and regulatory restrictions it has imposed in recent years, it has been signalling that it is willing to talk to and work with farmers.
“We’re probably at the best working relationship that we’ve had with government in the last quite a few years,” Karl Kynoch said at pork council’s annual meeting.
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“We’ve had a lot of very good meetings lately.”
Hog farmers have been anxiously watching the government’s behav-iour since last year’s provincial election, after it targeted them in the run-up to the campaign.
The government extended a hog barn construction moratorium across the entire province, regardless of regional phosphorus levels, which prevented producers from moving from areas with too-high phosphorus levels to areas in which crop farmers require phosphorus fertilizers.
However, no new major regulations or pieces of legislation have been announced since the election, and Kynoch said premier Greg Selinger, new agriculture minister Ron Kostyshyn and other ministers and government officials have been willing to meet with farmer representatives to discuss industry issues.
A few hours after Kynoch spoke, Kostyshyn attended the pork council’s banquet and offered greetings from the provincial government, something that increased the feeling among farmers that the icy relationship between industry and government might be thawing.
Manitoba’s hog industry is generally in good spirits, with farmers having found ways to live within the confines of U.S. country-of-origin labelling, a high Canadian dollar, weak consumer economies in the United States and Eastern Canada and the combination of moratoriums and new phosphorus regulations.
The last few years have placed incredible strain on the industry in Manitoba, with only 500 farmers left in the business. However, they still produce enough pigs to support two full shifts at the Maple Leaf Foods slaughter plant in Brandon, which employs 2,300 people, as well as the slaughter plant in Neepawa.
While the imposition of COOL severely interrupted the flow of pigs from Manitoba to the U.S. Midwest, farmers have formed new relationships and still exported 3.1 million weanlings and 400,000 slaughter hogs in 2011.
For most producers, the greatest long-term threat to the industry has come from its relations with the provincial government, which many farmers have felt disliked the very existence of the modern industry and was trying to find ways to cripple it.
The pork council has relentlessly operated public relations campaigns to swing public support over to the industry’s side, after seeing it become unpopular in many quarters during the 2000s.
Kynoch said the campaigning will continue and won’t change its core message.
“It’s back to educate, educate, educate and you just have to keep pounding those messages because when you’re getting sick and tired of telling that message, they’re just starting to get it,” said Kynoch.
The pork council ran full page advertisements in the Winnipeg Free Press during the election campaign that highlighted its support from many farming, business and industry groups. After the election, the NDP-affiliated mayor of Brandon publicly discussed her anxiety over a possible shrinkage of the Manitoba hog industry because the Maple Leaf slaughter plant is the city’s biggest employer.
Kynoch sounded relieved and optimistic about improving relations between the government and the industry, but noted that none of the restrictions placed on the industry are likely to be removed.
“One thing that the government has stated to us, has made it very clear, the moratorium is here to stay. The moratorium will not be lifted. It will stay in place,” said Kynoch.
Yet he said progress is possible within the restrictive system, and a lot of expectations rest on Kostyshyn.
“We actually have an agriculture minister that has an agriculture background. I think that’ll go a long ways,” said Kynoch. “(We’re) putting a lot of hope on this going forward.”
