Farmers in Manitoba wonder is the Manitoba government for them or against them

Earlier this year and after the provincial election in Manitoba, Stan Struthers held two cabinet portfolios in the Manitoba government, agriculture and finance, both very much intertwined.
Recently Struthers told Pembina Valley Online agriculture will be a priority for the province in 2012.
"It's very much a commitment of our provincial government to make sure that the farm sector is seen as a strategic investment. It's a healthy chunk of our gross domestic product, a big part of who we are as Manitobans," said Struthers. "We need to recognize how important agriculture is to our provincial economy. We need to design our programs to ensure that strength."
This prompted Weldon Newton, a former hog producer, today only a grain and special crops producer because of government-limiting regulations, to show his frustrations in a recent email.
"It looks like we can look forward to more suffocating regulations for agriculture practices that will put more producers out of business and make past investments in agriculture worthless," said Newton, whose shut down their third generation hog farm last fall for exactly those reasons.
"All in the name of showing non-farm voters that farmers are incapable of managing their farms in an environmentally responsible manner."
He said Struthers led the charge against the hog industry - who will be the next victim. It's about time Manitoba farmers had an Ag minister that defended agricultural producers.
Newton called it the next step in the NDP's desire to completely destroy hog production in Manitoba when the government passed Bill 46 designed to save Lake Winnipeg.
Earlier in June of 2011, Premier Greg Selinger said the stakes are too high and the time to take action is now.
"Lake Winnipeg is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and it's in trouble. We must take the steps necessary to preserve the lake and make it safe for generations of Manitobans to enjoy."
The long and short of that bill put a total ban on any kind of hog expansion in the province. While seeming someone mundane to some because the hog industry wasn't in any mood to expand, to Newton and others it clearly showed what this government thought of hog producers.
"They (or their hired consultants) keep saying we dump manure directly into rivers and lakes which is completely false. Meanwhile every town in Manitoba dumps their lagoons at least once a year into the nearest creek or river and Winnipeg flushes their sewage directly into the river every time it rains and they have been given decades to fix that problem," said a frustrated Newton then still a hog farmer.
Is the next step to prohibit the use of any fertilizers in crop production in Manitoba? Some cabinet ministers have certainly said in the past that farmers use too much fertilizer, he added.
In early November, Doug Chorney, president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers expressed concern when the government without warning or fanfare announced new fertilizer application deadlines to avoid farmers applying it on frozen ground. The deadline in Manitoba is midnight Nov 9 and not before April 10, 2012.
He said the province is consistently singling out agriculture as the main cause of Lake Winnipeg's water quality problems while dismissing the pollution the City of Winnipeg is contributing to the lake.
Farmers believe it is time for the government to come clean and focus on the big picture.
"We want Manitobans to know that agriculture and farmers are not to blame for the problems associated with Lake Winnipeg. We are applying manure or fertilizer to land through controlled, science-based, government-regulated practices, while the city is discharging sewage directly into waterways without any consequences," said Chorney. •
— By Harry Siemens