Were the rules in Manitoba’s new Water Protection Act subjected to a cost-benefit analysis?
DW: There is some work underway on that, but that work has not yet been completed. FC: The new regulations apply immediately to new start-ups. Won’t that encourage more intensive livestock operations, because large enterprises can better afford to capitalize new technologies and to comply with the burden of paperwork required by mandates? Wouldn’t that give an advantage to large ILOs, as opposed to smaller, “mom and pop” start-ups? DW: That’s a point that I’m not certain of. We know that some of the livestock centres in Manitoba are set to go through another series of expansions. If that expansion occurs similar to the way it has been occurring, that’s going to be in the large operations. For most of the small agricultural operations, in any case, we haven’t seen much change there; there’s been some consolidation of small family farms. It is the intention of government—and this why the threshold of 300 animal units is applied—to keep most of the regulatory focus on larger operations. B
