Commodity Groups Finalize Response to 'Finding Common Ground' Report
Farmscape for June 19, 2001 (Episode 705) Agricultural commodity groups in Manitoba have finalized their response to the Sustainable Livestock Development Panel's 'Finding Common Ground' report. The Sustainable Development Panel, which was commissioned by the provincial government to develop policy recommendations for intensive livestock development, released it's report in January. Keystone Agricultural Producers Vice President Weldon Newton says a summary of the position being taken by Manitoba commodity groups is now complete and will be forwarded to the Agriculture Minister. Clip-Weldon Newton-Keystone Agricultural Producers There were 40 recommendations in the report and the government, right off the start, said they would not implement two of them relating around environmental bonds. I guess we've given them a road map of how they could react to and implement the rest of the recommendations. I think from our point of view the key ones obviously revolve around how the land use planning and conditional use process will work in the province and what role the provincial government can play to take some responsibility for that and make the process work better at a local area. I guess, to us, the report was supportive of the livestock industry, that in fact it can expand and it can be done sustainably both economically and environmentally. I guess that's what we're carrying forward with the reaction to each of their recommendations and how the government should react so that we allow the livestock industry to continue to grow and prosper and for the grains industry to get the spin-off benefits of being able to feed more grains here in Manitoba. Newton expects meetings with the appropriate provincial government ministers to be arranged in the near future to deal with the report and help take the process forward. He says the process needs to work in a timely fashion to allow people to make investment decisions with the confidence they won't have roadblocks thrown up down the road. For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.