Farmscape for November 23, 2016

The Premier of Manitoba says one of his government's top priorities is reducing the red tape that's obstructing agricultural development.
In a letter sent to Manitoba's Premier, the Chair of Manitoba Pork encourages the province to consider a number of recommended regulatory amendments that the organization believes would streamline and accelerate the approval process for building new hog barns in the province,
During a news conference yesterday following the speech from the throne, Premier Brian Pallister told reporters his government is committed to reducing red tape and is establishing a Red Tape Reduction Task Force that will consult with people in the small business sector, identify regulatory barriers and develop options to eliminate them.

Clip-Brian Pallister-Premier Manitoba:
We see tremendous untapped opportunities, not exclusively in the pork industry but in others as well across rural Manitoba and we want to make sure that we're not obstructing those opportunities unnecessarily.
We all understand the need for protections, environmental and work place safety regulations being examples of those.
But we want to make sure that we're not impeding development and investment in our own province at the expense of future jobs.
Industry opportunities and employment opportunities broad based in agriculture are critical to our success as a province going forward as they have been throughout our history.
The ag industry is a major contributor to our gross domestic product and I see very good potential for us to add more opportunities in that sector.
This is a key part of our red tape review.
We've already received some initial input from the Pork Council, also from KAP and we look forward to further dialogue and leading to action in respect to making improvements that we think will assist in growing the industry.

Pallister says it's important to make sure there is accountability and transparency within all regulatory processes and that Manitobans have a say before regulations that will affect them come in.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork