Farmscape for December 13, 2016

Manitoba's Premier says the onerous regulatory burden placed on agriculture has obstructed our ability to create economic opportunity and jobs.
As Manitoba Pork  lobbies for a streamlining of the approval process for new hog barn construction, it has applauded  the province's commitment to reducing the government red tape that discourages agricultural development.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister told reporters yesterday, during his Year-end Review, the agriculture industry has a ton of potential in Manitoba and needs the support of all of us.

Clip-Brian Pallister-Premier Manitoba:
We know that the industry has the capacity to produce more.
We know that the processing industry has the additional unused capacity, has had for some time.
We know that the product is marketable and wanted.
We know that these opportunities have been undiscovered for a long time and not solely because of regulatory constraints but that is one aspect that we need to have a look at.
We have perhaps the most onerous regulatory burden on our hog producers of any province.
It could be argued that that has been an obstruction to us here in Manitoba having a chance to create more jobs and more economic opportunity here and we're listening to, not just the hog industry.
One of our principle points of initial focus with our red tape exercise is the value added ag sector.
We really think that there's potential for us to grow our economy in this area.
It's an area where we have not only some strong competitive advantages but we have just tremendous producers with capabilities that are second to none.
As a farm boy and the first farm boy Premier of Manitoba for about a half a century, I'm pretty excited about the potential that we can discover by looking at opportunities not just inside the city of Winnipeg.
Of course that's important, but also in the rural areas of our province.

Pallister says agriculture is a key economic driver in Manitoba and if it's a good year in farming, it's a good year for everybody in the province.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork