Early public involvement in any plans for intensive livestock operations is advised by all three prairie provinces, says a report on ILO implications.
The report released in October 1996 by the University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for Studies in Agriculture, Law and the Environment notes Manitoba has set up regional advisory committees. These are made up of representatives from provincial government departments, municipal governments, pork industry representatives and environmental groups.
“These committees oversee livestock operations, gather public input, and essentially, form the basis for a link between the ILO developer and the general public.”
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The report into the prairie experience with ILOs notes Manitoba and Alberta both use their environment departments to regulate manure disposal and water pollution. Saskatchewan has made the agriculture department specifically in charge of the issue, not the environment department.
“Still, in all three pro-vinces, much of the task of regulation of ILOs falls to the rural municipality in which the ILO is to be located,” said the report. That causes some differences in how ILOs are located and regulated due to “the attitudes of council members, local pressures and traditions and the vociferousness of local individuals for or against ILOs.”
About half of all Saskatchewan RMs have zoning bylaws covering ILOs. Those without bylaws will be covered by the agriculture department regulation. If an RM tries to limit ILOs by bylaw after a provincially approved one has started to build, it legally cannot.
“It’s pretty tough to have an overall policy,” said Sinclair Harrison, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities. “You have to analyze each situation on its own merit” because of differing soil conditions, watersheds and proximity to residential areas.
“Really it’s a local decision.”
He said SARM has had no resolutions either opposing or supporting these hog barns on a provincial basis. And, as grain transport costs rise and it makes more sense to feed the grain at home, more ILOs may be built.
“It’s a balancing act, how many (barns) we can environmentally afford.”
