Re: Manitoba to restrict manure spreading, (WP, Oct. 22.)
The consequences of nutrient overloading in Manitoba’s rivers and lakes have finally come to be the bright light to Manitoba provincial officials.
According to the article, they now have a campaign of war on phosphorus, a phrase that is upsetting to Andrew Dickson, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council.
In my view, this type of war has been long overdue. It should have been declared at least a decade ago, about the time the present government came into power.
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Conservation minister Stan Struthers states, “when we entered office, we recognized that decades of poor planning, abuse and neglect of our lakes, rivers and wetlands had to stop.”
His words of poor planning are far too gentle to the government and the mandate of his office: conservation.
Rather than poor planning, I would call it willful neglect. There was no planning.
It is not that they (the NDP) were not conscious of the situation and what was happening in the growing pork industry.
In fact, their agriculture critic repeatedly brought concerns to the house when they sat in opposition. Those concerns were about excessive manure and the possibility of pollution consequences to Manitoba waters.
And it’s not that ministers and bureaucrats were not being warned. They just didn’t want to listen.
They ignored and disregarded what people and organizations were telling them. …
Minister Struthers claims to have recognized that abuse and neglect had to stop when the NDP government entered office.
Where in blazes was this minister or other members of government when they approved provincial regulations that provide phosphorus limits of more than 800 pounds per acre province-wide? They sure weren’t thinking kindly of our lakes and rivers then, and that was only three years ago.
This regulation was not a war on phosphorus. It was an act of sabotage to Manitoba’s water sources.
It was an insult to the meaning of conservation.
Now the government is providing a $300,000 grant to the University of Manitoba to study phosphorus buildup and how it relates to nutrient loading in the provinces lakes and rivers.
(These are) probably the same university and individual researchers who helped to influence the decision to enact a phosphorus regulation limit that far exceeds the amount of phosphorus required by any agriculture cropping activity known on this planet.
Taxpayers’ money would be much better spent on helping to clean up Lake Winnipeg.…
