I feel I must take issue (once again) with Manitoba Pork. In a 700-plus word article appearing in several rural papers recently, Cam Dahl, the industry group’s general manger, makes the preposterous claim that “it’s hard to be green while in the red.”
If you are in the red, you must have been working at it, Cam, because, by my probably incomplete reckoning, your industry has been on the receiving end of more than $100 million in government (corporate welfare) assistance since 2000!
Because of this fact, your next claim that “government’s most frequent policy tool is regulation,” is not only incredibly inaccurate, but downright ungrateful. After all, without those tax dollars, how would you be able to brag about the number of jobs you’re creating or the numbers of new schools and hospitals you take credit for?
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And whining about the (refundable) carbon tax is pretty rich too. Despite your attempts to muddy the waters over the emissions you produce, they continue to go up. That’s because you stubbornly refuse to implement best management practices such as manure composting, or even ones that might alleviate the suffering of the hogs like (kinder, gentler) open, straw-bedding systems.
I know you will not answer this, since your sector has long since retreated to a comfortable nest where, hiding behind the motherly skirts of your government enablers, you remain unaccountable, operating with virtual impunity.
But here it goes anyway.
Apart from the (refundable) carbon tax, what regulations are you finding especially onerous, especially in a province that’s been basking in the heady aura of “red tape reductions” and “right to (factory) farm” legislation brought in by governments on both the right and the left in this province for over half a century?
Be specific, Cam. I’m holding my breath (not really) for your answer.
Larry Powell,
Shoal Lake, Man.
