Manitoba conservation minister Stan Struthers issued a permanent moratorium on hog barn expansion in three regions of the province, on the same day the Clean Environment Commission’s report was released on March 3.
No further expansion will be allowed in the province’s southeast, the Red River Valley and the Interlake, said Struthers. However, the moratorium, which was first introduced as a “temporary pause” on the industry in November of 2006, would be lifted in the rest of the province, where industry concentration is lower.
“When we introduced the pause last year, we did so to determine if growth in the industry was environmentally sustainable,” Struthers said during a news conference at the Manitoba Legislature. “Clearly, in some parts of our province, the answer is no.”
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Struthers said that a different environmental protection strategy for each region was necessary to prevent phosphorus loading into Lake Winnipeg.
The area surrounding Steinbach, in the southeast, was deemed as overdeveloped, with 28 percent of Manitoba’s three million hogs in the municipalities of Hanover and La Broquerie.
Struthers said those areas lack sufficient acres to spread pig manure without exceeding the legally allowable limit.
The Red River Valley, north and south of Winnipeg, was classified as high risk because it is prone to floods.
The Interlake region between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba was included in the permanent ban because it has a Karst topography (of limestone) and was deemed unsuitable for containing manure runoff.
In 2006, Struthers asked the CEC to study the sustainability of the hog industry in the province. After more than a year of consultations with hog producers and those who believe pig manure is a threat to water quality in Lake Winnipeg, the CEC submitted its findings in early February.
Travis Penner, who was part of a 1,500-sow family operation in the southwest corner of the province until about six months ago, said lifting the moratorium on hog barn expansion in his area could be good news for the local industry.
“I think we have a lot of room to expand in southwest Manitoba,” said Penner. “We have less of a concern about phosphorous in this part of the province.”
Manitoba Pork Council chair Karl Kynoch said the ban comes at a bad time for the industry, as it tries to cope with low prices, the high Canadian dollar and soaring feed costs.
“If you’re living in an area where the permanent ban is, are you going to stay viable for the long term?” he said. “This new level of regulation will probably encourage some producers to exit the industry.”
