Councillors in the Saskatchewan rural municipality of Foam Lake will vote March 5 on whether to go ahead with an intensive pig operation amid mounting opposition.
Petitions with 600 signatures opposing the construction of Big Sky barns at six sites near Foam Lake will be presented at the council’s next meeting.
Reeve Gerald Holowaty is unsure how the vote will go but said the petitions represent two-thirds of local ratepayers.
“I believe we should be listening to our ratepayers,” he said.
Holowaty said the RM began exploring hog barn development last year as a way to create economic development for the region.
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Ernie Patrick of Big Sky Pork in Humboldt said his company only goes where it is invited.
“We don’t throw a dart at a map. Everybody comes to us,” he said, noting the community suggested the proposed barn sites.
Marilyn Wunder of the Concerned Citizens Coalition said she only learned of the proposed developments in December.
Her group immediately began holding meetings, circulating petitions and researching other communities’ experiences with large hog barns.
“It’s not just our community going through this, this is a major issue,” Wunder said.
At meetings held Feb. 19 and 20 in the community, several hundred local residents listened to speakers from Big Sky and the provincial government and anti-ILO groups like Hogwatch Manitoba.
Wunder said barn development might increase business in town during the construction phase but doubted there would be long-term benefits.
The barns add costs to RMs in ongoing road maintenance, employ few local workers and use open pit waste lagoons, she said.
“To have economic gain at the expense of others is not economic gain at all,” she said.
Patrick, a manure specialist with Big Sky, told one meeting that odour can be masked by blowing 150 bales of straw over the lagoons and by feeding pigs certain enzymes. Injecting the manure into nearby farmland produces fewer odours than surface applications, he noted. Patrick said nutrient levels are monitored and soils tested to ensure balanced levels.
Manure from the proposed sites could be spread over 5,000 acres within six kilometres, he said.
“We have more demand than we can supply.”
Patrick also said Big Sky uses engineers to design manure systems, which must be approved by regulatory agencies before the project starts.
Wunder said the hog barn project has divided the community. She hopes the proposal will be defeated and local residents will look to opportunities in tourism like the creation of a cultural centre and recording studio.
“We have to capture that positive energy to benefit the whole community, not just a few,” she said.
