U.S. politicians apparently needed less convincing — on Oct. 22 President Bill Clinton signed a record $8.9-billion farm aid package, including $5.54 billion in direct cash aid to grain and cotton growers.

At a KAP general council meeting in Portage, there was discussion of addressing the low price problem by following the law of supply and demand, and president Ian Wishart floated an idea to pay farmers for setting aside farmland to reduce overproduction.

Livestock producers were also facing problems — a round of “citizen hearings” on the pork industry heard many criticisms from the general public, and producers attending Manitoba Cattle Producer Association local meetings heard that the organization’s coffers were being drained by its $400,000 share of the legal bills in fighting U.S. anti-dumping duties.

The post Aid refusal fuels flames of western alienation appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Red River Basin Commission recently held meetings to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1997 “Flood of the Century,” and the presentations reminded of just how traumatic and expensive it was. They outlined some of the steps that have been taken to reduce future damage such as a bigger floodway and higher dikes, but emphasized that there’s still a big portion of the strategy that hasn’t been addressed — reducing or preventing the floods in the first place.

The 2011 flood in western Manitoba cost an estimated $1 billion, and the 2014 version another $250 million, costs that dwarf, for example, the $6.5 million that Education Minister Ian Wishart said would be saved by cancelling plans to build two school gyms in Winnipeg.

Readers will remember that Wishart is a former KAP president and one of the two architects of the Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) program, which would compensate farmers for preserving wetlands rather than draining them for cropland.

When ALUS was developed, there was more interest in saving wetlands for ducks rather than for flood prevention, and the other ALUS architect was Jonathan Scarth, who at the time was vice-president of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation. Today, Scarth is Premier Brian Pallister’s principal secretary.

Having two such high-profile team members responsible for this idea gives Pallister the opportunity to start collecting some major brownie points, if not eventually taking credit for a legacy of finally developing a long-term water management policy. In the past, that policy has essentially been “more and deeper ditches.” That worked for a while, but now, especially during this long wet cycle, at least as many people are being harmed as helped by uncontrolled drainage. Given that the provincial PCs are so strong in rural areas, they have nothing to lose by taking this on.

Meanwhile, taxpayers have a lot to gain, especially if water can be managed to take the peak off future floods. But this also meshes with other issues facing the government and facing farmers.

One is the health of Lake Winnipeg. Work by University of Manitoba soil scientist David Lobb and others has made it clear that agriculture’s contribution to the problem is not nutrients from hog barns or fertilizer — it’s the water carrying them, including from natural sources. If you control the water, you control the problem. Their work has shown that only a relatively small area of a field is needed to store water and take the peak off drainage flow, or used for irrigation in dry years.

Then there’s Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler’s proposal for Manitoba to double its beef cattle herd. That will need more grass and forage land, which is not subject to the same panic to get drained in time to seed an annual crop every year. Holding back water means maintaining or restoring sloughs around which cattle don’t mind manoeuvring, unlike humans with their seeding and harvest machinery.

We might need that forage, and the extra cattle to eat it. Herbicide resistance is becoming more serious, and farmers are running out of chemical- or herbicide-tolerant options. It’s becoming apparent that introducing forages to the rotation is one way, if not the only way, to break the cycle. Every grain farmer doesn’t have to go back to cattle, but they could make arrangements with neighbours to exchange land or forage.

That has implications for business risk management programs, which are now under review. It’s likely to consider whether support should recognize economically and agronomically sustainable practices, and that could include under crop insurance.

Some of the most exciting agricultural research in this province is already underway through the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiative in Brandon. There’s a real opportunity to build on that work with a big-picture initiative. Former Premier Doug Campbell took much credit for the legacy of rural electrification. Duff Roblin still gets regular thanks every time Winnipeg gets saved by the Red River Floodway.

Premier Brian Pallister has the opportunity to be remembered for another major achievement, which is developing the comprehensive water-management policy that has eluded this province almost since the first settlers said, “Thanks for the free land, but how do you seed it in spring?” It’s not a bad package: lowering flooding costs, cleaning up Lake Winnipeg, reducing soil erosion, improving weed control and producing more tasty grass-feed beef.

Oh, and a few more ducks. We’re waiting.

John Morriss is a former editor of the Manitoba Co-operator.

The post Editorial: Less water, more grass appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

After being questioned by NDP MLA Wab Kinew during a supply committee meeting last week, Education and Training Minister Ian Wishart acknowledged that local taxation authorities would be examined under a broad review of education planned by the Tory government.

“We did commit to a full consultation process,” Wishart told the committee. “We haven’t put a final date on that yet as the call for proposals and such is still in development, and that will be determined… but we did commit to being very detailed… the funding of the schools would be part of that program as well.”

When pressed for details, the minister added that, “I think that everyone knows that (the formula for education tax) has been in place for a large number of years. There is fairly widespread level of — you won’t call it dissatisfaction, but awareness that it is not meeting the needs.”

To date, the Manitoba government has not publicly announced any review of education funding and would not provide further comment on the issue due to restrictions on government communications during the campaign for an upcoming byelection in Point Douglas.

Review welcomed

A funding review would be a positive first step in the eyes of many producers.

“Education is costing our rural communities more every year and something is going to break and I just hope it’s not farmers,” said Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier. “Something needs to change in how we fund it and for the minister to say that is good, it’s good they are looking at.”

Farmers can apply for an education tax rebate, but it’s been capped at $5,000 for the last several years and updated municipal assessments last year resulted in some producers to see their tax bills soar by as much as 50 or 60 per cent.

Inclement conditions, like the excess moisture seen in 2011 and 2014, have also left many farmers on the hook for taxes on land that could not be planted in recent years.

“For years, ever since we can remember, we’ve been asking them to take education taxes off of production buildings and land,” said Mazier. “The problem with the way it is set up now, is that it doesn’t reflect the ability to pay and that is always a fundamental problem.”

He added that the general farm organization has reached out to other organizations such as the Manitoba School Board Association, to come up with new options and strategies for reducing producers’ tax bills.

“We have realized that our request of no education tax on farmland and production buildings was getting pretty tired and long in the tooth and that we need to have a new approach,” he said. “So we are giving them options.”

Part of that approach includes calling on the provincial government to once again provide 80 per cent of education funding. Currently the Manitoba government only funds about 60 per cent of the cost, leaving municipalities to provide the rest. Education funding this year also saw the lowest increase since the 1990s — less than one per cent.

However, Mazier — a former school board trustee — notes dealing with education funding will require a multi-faceted approach involving all stakeholders, as well as a close look at what education means, what is essential and what is not and how it’s delivered.

“But a review is a good first step,” he said.

The post Education taxes to be looked at under review appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“The government has made this a priority and the minister of agriculture and the minister of sustainable development have been mandated with creating a program based on the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) model to help reduce flooding and improve water quality and nutrient management,” Brandon West MLA Reg Helwer told the Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) summer advisory meeting here last week.

ALUS would compensate farmers for providing ecological goods and services such as holding back water or maintaining wildlife habitat. Before being elected earlier this year, the Progressive Conservatives promised to implement ALUS province-wide. Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler says this remains a top priority.

“My first goal is to get through this with our federal-provincial meeting, the second goal would then be to start reducing our red tape and then the third mandate would be the ALUS program,” Eichler said following an industry consultation session in Portage la Prairie on July 12.

One of the original ALUS architects is Ian Wishart, formerly KAP president and now minister of education. Another is Jonathan Scarth, former senior vice-president of Delta Waterfowl Foundation and now principal secretary to Premier Brian Pallister.

The first ALUS pilot project in the RM of Blanchard expired in 2008 and none have been implemented in Manitoba since. ALUS now has a national office with staff and a board of directors, and several projects have been started in six other provinces.

KAP was a key partner in the Blanchard project and asked an ALUS representative for an update at last week’s meeting.

“Up until recently the prevalent thinking has been that the cost of ecosystem services on private land should be borne by the landowner, but as environmental land degradation worsens, this is changing,” said Lara Ellis, director of strategic initiatives with ALUS Canada. “The vision of ALUS is to create a healthy landscape that sustains agriculture, wildlife and natural spaces for all Canadians.”

But who will pay?

KAP president Dan Mazier said he supports the concept.

“One good advantage here is that it was piloted in Manitoba, we backed away for a while and now we have a chance to make this a really good made-in-Manitoba program that is tailored to our geography and our problems. I think it is a really good program to look at,” Mazier said.

But he added that there is a long way to fruition, with the largest obstacle being its estimated $25-million price tag.

“The big question of course is, ‘Where is this money coming from?’ But, there are a number of different entities at play here and if they feed programs like this as a pre-emptive movement to try and mitigate risks presented by Mother Nature, there is a lot of possibility but it will be a long road,” Mazier said.

Ellis says it is ALUS Canada’s goal to see the program funded through a number of streams, not solely on the backs of the federal and provincial governments.

“It is our goal that this program be funded through a large spectrum of sources. So, not solely by government or philanthropic contributions but a combination of government, corporate, individuals and also new markets, which the government has a role in creating,” Ellis said.

Program structure

Projects under ALUS usually involve marginal land with little to no potential for profit. Previous examples would be wetland restoration, pollinator projects, tree planting, repairing buffers and modified agricultural processes.

“Most of our projects are in marginal or eco-sensitive land. We do not want to create tensions between food production and ecosystem production, so we mainly do our projects on the margins,” Ellis said.

ALUS programs are developed by local communities to respect local agricultural and environmental priorities and are delivered by producers.

“We know that farmers and ranchers are in the best position to deliver ecosystem services,” Ellis said. “Each ALUS community has a Partnership Advisory Committee (PAC) leading it and the rule of thumb is that each PAC should be made up of at least 50 per cent farmers. The others are made up of representatives from municipal and agricultural board reps and non-government organizations with interest in agriculture or conservation.”

Ellis said ALUS Canada would work with local communities to supply the framework, funding, communication support and federal and provincial government relations, leaving the PAC to determine specific goals for the region.

“Everything that we do is geared towards outcomes on the ground, delivered by farmers and ranchers in a program that was developed by farmers and ranchers,” Ellis said.

In current ALUS projects, the PAC also makes decisions about producer payments and according to Ellis, most are set on a payment per acre at this time.

“It is generally based on land rental rates for marginal land and then some sort of variation if we are looking at modified agricultural practices on productive land,” she said. “As ALUS grows and these markets are more defined, because right now there are not really hard prices for a lot of these ecological services, then our pricing will get more sophisticated as well.”

Changes coming soon

Ellis says ALUS Canada has recently been working with civil servants putting together background information on how the program can be run and has plans to meet with a few different ministers later this month.

“The government commitment is very exciting and I think there is an opportunity to do large-scale work here that would be beneficial not only to the environment but also in terms of keeping costs for infrastructure lower, so it is a great opportunity and if Manitoba does it right, it will be something that should be recognized on a global scale,” Ellis said.

Eichler says this project is certainly on his radar and hopes an ALUS-like program will be ready to go by the spring of 2017.

“We’re hoping, we have a lot to do… it’s very ambitious,” Eichler said. “But we’ll have those conversations prior to the spring, and it depends on what legislation we have to bring in place to move it forward.”

With files from Shannon VanRaes

The post The ALUS program may come back to life in Manitoba appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Keystone Agricultural Producers and Ralph Eichler sat down last week for the first time since the change in government this spring.

“School taxes (on agricultural land and buildings) was the No. 1 issue we brought up,” KAP president Dan Mazier said in an interview June 17.

KAP vice-president Justin Jenner and general manager James Battershill also attended the 30-minute meeting.

KAP has long advocated the removal of locally collected school taxes on all farmland and farm buildings, arguing it’s unfair because it doesn’t reflect farmers’ ability to pay.

The previous NDP government introduced a program to rebate 80 per cent of education taxes on farmland, but then capped the total refund at $5,000 per landowner.

As of April, the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) said in 2015, 1,893 farmers were affected by the cap resulting in them not getting a total of $7.4 million rebated. Since the data processing wasn’t finished the final total could be higher.

In 2014, 1,464 farmers were unable to get $5.5 million rebated because of the cap.

KAP wants all education taxes removed, but in the interim wants the rebate deducted off farmers’ tax bills, rather than requiring farmers to apply to MASC for the rebate.

“It (education taxes) really frustrate me,” Mazier said. “Judging by the amount of phone calls I am getting and the (KAP) office is getting on (farmland) assessment, I think it is going to be well over $7 million and well over 1,900 (farmers affected by the cap on rebates in 2016).”

Given the provincial government’s deficit KAP doesn’t expect the new Progressive Conservative government will immediately address the cap, Mazier said.

“But our big ask is just take it all off of production buildings and land anyway,” he said. “But that is not going to happen in the first term of this government.”

The new government has also promised a task force to identify red tape. KAP supports the idea and is asking farmers to suggest red tape they want cut. Farmers can fill out a survey on KAP’s website (http://tinyurl.com/gtxjj4c).

Mazier said he hopes the task force will consider streamlining the farmland drainage application pro­cess, which the previous government proposed in its surface water management bill that died because of the election.

KAP also told Eichler it could be a resource in setting up the Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) program to reward farmers for providing ecological goods and services to society.

“We are ready to work with the department,” Maizer said. “I think he (Eichler) is open to it.”

ALUS was created in Manitoba by former KAP president and now Minister of Education and Training Ian Wishart and Jonathon Scarth, Premier Brian Pallister’s principal secretary.

Pallister instructed Eichler and the minister of sustainable development to introduce “a province-wide program based on the ALUS model to help reduce flooding and improve water quality and nutrient management.”

Mazier likes mandate letters for ministers.

“It really helps the process because then we know what the minister is up against,” he said. To me that is a very positive move.

“It does remind both sides what they are supposed to be working on. The premier is giving guidance to everyone as to what he is expecting.”

The post KAP has first meeting with Ag Minister Ralph Eichler appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Increasingly, there are people who have opinions about the way you farm and that’s not going to change. You can attempt to educate them about what you do and why, but that’s only going to go so far.

Eventually, you’ll run into the hidebound ideologues of the world who have already made up their mind and have little interest in absorbing new information and altering their world view.

At one point that wouldn’t have really been an issue, because farmers were a potent political force in their own right.

For much of Canadian history, we were a rural country of farmers, and up until the end of the Second World War, the majority of Canadians was rural residents with ties to the farm.

Back then populist political parties like the United Farmers held power at the provincial level and farm leaders were courted in the halls of power nationally.

Obviously these days it’s a much harder sell. According to the 2011 Canadian Census, there were just 293,925 farm operators in the country, out of a total population of 34.34 million. Are farmers themselves one of those “special interest groups” they like to complain about?

With those numbers it’s always going to be hard to move the needle, and doubly so if farmers aren’t willing to work together.

The May 19 issue of the Manitoba Co-operator featured an article expressing concern that the province’s general farm organization, the Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP), has a funding model that features a refundable checkoff, and some are calling for a move to an “opt-in” model rather than forcing producers to apply for the refund of their money.

On one level I suppose that argument does have some merit. After all it’s a free country and nobody should necessarily have the power to compel membership in any organization, and certainly not something like an industry association that’s hardly life or death.

But that’s not what this is about. Any farmer does in fact have the right to fill out a form, decline membership, and get their funds back. It might be a bit of a hassle, but it is well within the realm of the possible and there are farmers who do it every year.

The real issue the opt-out system addresses is that all-too-human failing of inertia.

There are a lot of things we all know are good for us. Getting more exercise, for example, or eating a more nutritionally balanced diet, or — having a unified voice for the agriculture industry.

Left to our own devices however, we’re just as likely to crack a beer, watch the game and forget to fill out that membership form and send in a cheque.

Why should you want to have that unified voice? Because in my opinion, KAP represents quite possibly the best bang you’re going to get for your buck.

It’s a relatively lean organization with a clearly defined mandate to represent the interests of the broad agriculture sector at the provincial level, with ties to national bodies that do the same.

It concentrates on concrete issues and doesn’t get tied up in politicking or get taken over as a branch plant of one or another political party — a trend that’s unfortunately pronounced at the national level.

To give just one example of how that dynamic has played out, Ian Wishart, who is currently a cabinet minister in the Pallister government, headed KAP for a considerable period during the previous government’s mandate.

During that time, KAP never said a bad word about the NDP and in fact worked with it to accomplish what it could under the reality of a predominantly urban governing party. It was, and is, a mature and clear-eyed attitude that should be emulated elsewhere.

KAP had made real progress on a number of files as a result, perhaps most notably on farmland education taxes. It convinced the Manitoba government to rebate 80 per cent of education tax on farmland, up to a maximum of $5,000 per farm, and continue to push for a fairer structural distribution of the education tax burden.

It also managed to get the government to take a second look at some legislation such as water stewardship and nudged the labour-friendly NDP government to accept that agriculture is a unique industry and deserved some special dispensation under workplace health and safety regulations.

It pioneered the alternative land use services (ALUS) concept, which has begun to catch on in jurisdictions across the country, and proposes compensating farmers for public goods like environmental services that are performed for the rest of society.

Every farmer will look at that record of achievement and make their own decision about whether or not KAP adds value, and I won’t tell you what to do, or insist you should be a KAP member.

I’ll only say that for $210 a year, it looks like a pretty good deal to an outsider.

The post Editorial: A voice for you appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ron Kostyshyn lost his seat Tuesday to Tory candidate Rick Wowchuk, a schoolteacher from Swan River, by a spread of over 1,500 votes.

Kostyshyn, a cow-calf producer from Ethelbert, Man., had been the NDP MLA for the northwestern riding of Swan River since 2011 and the minister of agriculture, food and rural development since 2012.

Pallister’s Tories, at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, were elected or leading in 40 of 57 constituencies, followed by Greg Selinger’s NDP in 14 and Rana Bokhari’s Liberals in three.

The Tories, who have traditionally held most of the ridings outside Winnipeg and the province’s far north, swept all of agricultural Manitoba on Tuesday and boast a strong depth chart on the ag file.

CLICK HERE for a look at the Manitoba provincial parties’ recent answers to the Manitoba Co-operator’s questions on farming and rural issues.

Pallister, who pledged to cut the size of the provincial cabinet by a third, has several veteran MLAs who could fill the ag minister role, among them the incumbent ag critic, Blaine Pedersen, a grain and cattle producer from the Elm Creek area and the MLA for Midland since 2007.

Pedersen, the ag critic since 2011 and a former rural initiatives critic, easily held his riding of Midland by a spread of over 5,300 votes against Green Party candidate Stacey O’Neill.

The party’s incumbent child and family services critic, Ian Wishart, brings a long resume in ag policy and programming back to the legislature, having won his Portage la Prairie riding over the Liberals’ Stephen Prince by a spread of over 3,200 votes.

Wishart, the Tory MLA for Portage since 2011, is a former president of Keystone Agricultural Producers and one of the early proponents of the Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) program to support farmers in the delivery of environmental goods and services.

Another former Tory ag critic, Emerson MLA Cliff Graydon, a cattle producer at Woodmore, also won his seat by a spread of over 3,500 votes against Liberal candidate Loren Braul.

Graydon, the MLA for Emerson since 2007 and the incumbent critic for healthy living and seniors, was a founding member and director with the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association.

Among the other potential candidates for the ag file are Lakeside MLA Ralph Eichler, a former ag critic and the incumbent critic for municipal government and Manitoba Hydro; and Reg Helwer, the MLA for Brandon West and a former president of the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association (CAMA).

The New Democrats, driven back mostly to their base in Winnipeg’s core, have relatively little experience remaining on the agriculture file.

Potential candidates as NDP ag critic include Rob Altemeyer, the returning MLA for the Winnipeg riding of Wolseley and the party’s incumbent legislative assistant for conservation and water stewardship.

Selinger won his Winnipeg riding, St. Boniface, by a spread of over 1,400 votes against Tory candidate Mamadou Ka, but announced Tuesday night he would step down as NDP leader. The Liberals’ Bokhari was running third in her Winnipeg riding, Fort Rouge, against NDP candidate Wab Kinew.

Pallister, a former schoolteacher who founded a financial services company in Portage la Prairie, later served as the MLA for Portage and as a cabinet minister in Gary Filmon’s Tory government, and also served federally for eight years as the MP for Portage-Lisgar.

Pallister on Tuesday easily held his suburban Winnipeg riding, Fort Whyte, by a spread of over 5,000 votes against NDP challenger George Wong. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Manitoba ag minister unseated in Tory sweep appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

For Manitoba farm writers however, there is an even more important rule — don’t express any opinions on drainage. This is because everyone out there is more expert than you, especially on ways to get water off their land and send it somewhere else, and especially when it’s right now.

That said, perhaps it’s time to be bold and express the view that there has been a “tipping point” reached on the drainage issue. It comes down to this: just about everyone in the province is now living “somewhere else” — in other words, drainage is causing flooding for more people than it’s helping.

That realization no doubt prompted the provincial Progressive Conservatives to on July 30 call for a moratorium on drainage in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Water Resources Critic Shannon Martin said he had asked “the province to engage our counterparts in Saskatchewan to have a moratorium on the issuance of new drainage until such time that a more co-ordinated approach is taken.”

Martin added it would be unfair to ask our neighbours to address drainage without making changes here at home.

“We’d have to look at applying it here as well, obviously we can’t simply ask Saskatchewan to bear the burden,” he said.

The rookie MLA quickly learned the lesson that when it comes to drainage, you make such reasonable statements at your peril. Word soon got out, and he was quickly slapped down. Within 24 hours he claimed he had “misspoke,” and in an email said that “the moratorium on all new drainage was exclusive to landowners in Saskatchewan.”

Our sympathies to Mr. Martin, whose party put him in a laughable position. He represents the constituency of Morris, which without some of the world’s most extensive drainage works outside of the Netherlands, would consist largely of cattails and willow clumps. If Manitoba wants Saskatchewan to take us seriously, our position is that it has to stop but we don’t?

A few days later, the PCs tried to deflect attention with a press release calling for the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) programs to be implemented province-wide. ALUS, which was partly developed by now-PC MLA and former KAP president Ian Wishart, would pay farmers to maintain wetlands and other natural areas.

The release contains this quote from Bob Grant, provincial operations manager for Ducks Unlimited.

“The timeliest action we can take to protect our lakes and rivers from nutrient pollution and reduce the threat and impact of flooding is to stop the bleeding by protecting our remaining wetlands from destruction and degradation. Restoring previously drained wetlands begins the healing process immediately. It is remarkable how quickly a restored wetland will recover and behave once again as a functioning ecological system.”

The release goes on to say, “The PCs are committed to making ALUS a component of its long-term flood mitigation and environmental strategy including matching provincial dollars to move ALUS from regional project stage to province-wide implementation.”

Read those paragraphs again, as they are now the official PC position. And contrary to what Mr. Martin “misspoke,” it not only calls for a moratorium on drainage, but restoration of previously drained wetlands. Notably, that is a stronger position than that adopted by the NDP with its recent surface-water management policy.

The point here is not which is better. The issue is that the province and some rural municipalities are being driven to the financial brink by the cost of fighting floods. Drainage, much of which so far has been uncontrolled, is a significant contributor to that cost, and it must be curtailed if not reversed.

There was a time when a politician could not say that without incurring the wrath of the whole farm community. Again, we’ve reached a tipping point. There may now be as many farmers who are being harmed as are being helped by drainage. Some of those affected by changes may pick up the phone and complain, but that is no longer a reason for any politician to run for cover on this issue.

And let’s be blunt. The NDP doesn’t have much to lose in rural Manitoba, so it might as well do the right thing. Short of pledging to fill in every ditch in the Red River Valley, the PCs aren’t going to lose any seats in rural Manitoba, so they might as well do — and say — the right thing.

The right thing is to hold more water back on the land.

The post No need to run for cover appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ian Wishart was acclaimed as the Progressive Conservative candidate for the provincial Portage la Prairie riding at a Dec. 20 constituency meeting.

About 45 people attended the nomination meeting held in a Portage la Prairie hotel.

Wishart, 56, resigned as KAP president Oct. 14. He declared his intention to run provincially two weeks later.

Wishart hopes to replace PC incumbent MLA David Faurschou, who announced in September he would not seek re-election.

The next provincial election will be held Oct. 4, 2011.

Wishart said his job between now and the election is to get up to speed on constituency issues as well as agricultural ones.

A major issue for local voters is the Bipole III transmission line which, if constructed as planned, will go down the west side and across the south side of the constituency.

Farmers who produce intensive agricultural crops, such as potatoes and beans, are particularly concerned the power line will inconvenience their operations, Wishart said.

He said Portage la Prairie will need help paying for modifications to the city’s waste water treatment plant because of new provincial phosphorus regulations. The McCain and Simplot french fry-processing plants put a lot of pressure on the system and “it’ll be quite a substantial bill for the size of the population base.”

The post KAP’s Former Leader Gets Political Nomination appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Wishart ended two weeks of rumour by saying he will seek the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination for his home riding of Portage la Prairie.

He announced his decision to a hometown crowd of friends and neighbours at an Oct. 29 news conference in a local hotel.

Wishart resigned abruptly as Keystone Agricultural Producers president Oct. 14 amid speculation he was planning to enter provincial politics.

As KAP leader, Wishart always kept his political preferences well hidden. So it was a bit of a surprise to some when he came out in favour of the PCs.

But Wishart said he was president of the local PC constituency some 15 years ago and always felt comfortable within the Tory tent.

“I have an open mind on issues. But I think my roots are in the Conservative party. That’s where I’m most comfortable.”

Wishart said all three major political parties phoned him the morning after he resigned from KAP to see what his preferences were.

He said he met with all of them and decided to go with the Conservatives because he felt most at home with their policies.

Wishart, 56, will seek to succeed PC incumbent MLA David Faurschou, who announced in September he would not run in the next provincial election.

A nomination meeting is expected before Christmas. The Portage la Prairie PC constituency held its annual meeting Nov. 2.

Wishart said he decided to enter politics because he missed the local community involvement; there was never enough time when he was involved with KAP leadership.

He laughed when asked if he saw himself as a possible agriculture minister should the Tories win the next provincial election Oct. 4, 2011.

“If nominated, that’s step one, I’ll fight for election. And if elected, I’ll be happy to serve in whatever role the leader wants me to, whether that’s in government or in opposition.”

Wishart was KAP president for nearly three years and vice-president for four years before that. He and his wife Leslie, an accountant, operate a beef and grain farm north of Portage la Prairie. They have two daughters aged 12 and 10.

The post Former KAP President To Run Provincially appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.