It is sad and disheartening to see how the Manitoba government has treated the small cattle ranchers who are the stewards of our grasslands. They forced most of the First Nations ranchers out of business with the Portage Diversion flood of 2011. The people and the land have never recovered.
In the last three years, the provincial government has caused many of the Métis ranchers and others to go out of business by tripling their grazing fees overnight. At the same time, they changed the laws so that large corporations were able to swoop in and consolidate these ranches into huge mismanaged units.
Most of these ranchers are now almost penniless after generations of back-breaking work caring for the land and livestock.
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Now that the damage has been done, we see the two former agriculture ministers and the deputy minister fleeing for the exits, too arrogant to admit their mistakes. Their lives will go on unaffected. This is in sharp contrast to the ranchers whose lives and farms have been destroyed.
The Manitoba Crown Land Leaseholders are calling on the premier to step up to the plate. Your government promised to help young farmers and increase the beef herd. Instead you have forced a number of young ranchers to leave, never to return. However, it’s not too late for you to reverse the senseless policies that your government has enacted.
It’s also time for the Manitoba Métis Federation, which has been strangely silent, to get involved. After all, it was the Manitoba government and land speculators who managed to rob the Métis farmers of a million acres of land in the 1880s.
Premier Stefanson, please don’t let these good hard-working citizens go down the drain.
Dale Myhre,
Crane River
