Politicians pitch platforms at regenerative ag conference

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Attendees at the Manitoba Forage & Grassland Association regenerative agriculture conference in Brandon got a little taste of the House of Commons on Tuesday with members of Parliament from both the government and the opposition staking out positions on various issues.

Winnipeg South Liberal MP Terry Duguid, in a speech delivered by Zoom, talked up his government’s financial supports for the agriculture sector and the work it’s done to fight climate change and protect water sources, while Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa Conservative MP Dan Mazier decried the Liberals’ creation of a new water agency as well as the federal carbon tax.

Also present was new Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn, who spoke about returning to the portfolio after seven years and the current challenges facing producers.

Climate change, Duguid told the crowd, is already affecting agriculture with more extreme weather, droughts and floods damaging crops and soil health.

He said producers are demonstrating their adaptability by adopting greener technologies and management practices, which will help the country’s goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by 2030.

To promote biodiversity, Duguid said his government has introduced conservation targets for the year 2030 that agriculture will be a key partner in achieving.

“In 2021, drought in the Prairies resulted in $75 million in lost crops and $47 million in lost revenues in Manitoba,” he said. “Another challenge is the need to improve the health of our freshwater bodies.”

In this year’s budget, the federal government introduced funding to create a new Canada Water Agency headquartered out of Winnipeg aimed at protecting freshwater resources with the help of stakeholders.

Duguid said it was based on the model of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, that Stephen Harper’s government shut down after 80 years of work.

When Mazier — a farmer and former president of Keystone Agricultural Producers — came on stage, he took aim at Duguid’s comments about the PFRA.

“The whole reason behind cancelling the PFRA was so the people on the landscape could start working with government,” said Mazier, who is a member of the House’s standing committee on environment and sustainable development.

The Westman MP said the creation of the new agency was another symptom of the current government becoming too bloated and that very little information exists on it.

Current government programming, he said, is years out of date and needs to be updated in consultation with farmers and groups like the MFGA.

Wading in on the current debate over the carbon tax, which has seen the federal Liberals introduce a carve-out exempting the tax from heating oil, Mazier said it was “a sinister tax” taking money out of rural communities.

Speaking to the Sun after his remarks, Mazier said a private member’s bill of his, requiring internet service providers to be more transparent in the services they advertise, is held up in the Senate after passing in the House of Commons because the upper chamber is examining a bill that would exempt agricultural grain drying from the carbon tax.

While Mazier is in favour of the discussion over the agricultural carve-out, he said anyone interested in supporting the passage of his bill should reach out to senators.

Whether it’s good or bad weather, hard times or good times, Kostyshyn told the crowd he’s experienced it all as a beef and grain producer.

While there have been difficulties, the minister also said beef producers are finally being rewarded for their hard work.

“I recall when I was selling calves and I got a dollar and some odd for a 600-pound steer,” he said. “I even celebrated that night after I picked up the cheque at the auction. Obviously, the prices have improved, but so have input costs continued to rise for all agriculture sectors.”

Kostyshyn said that while Manitoba does a good job at producing raw products, what the province is missing are businesses to take advantage of the added value that provides.

“We need to enhance that opportunity to start making more of a finished product out of the raw products we grow in this province,” he said. “And we need to do that in partnership with the federal government as well.”

In an interview after his speech, Kostyshyn told the Sun that examples of where Manitoba has done well at processing raw products include the Roquette pea protein plant in Portage la Prairie, pork processing and canola crushing.

Finding more ways to process raw products, he said, will create more employment opportunities for Manitobans and improve the overall health of the provincial economy.

In Kostyshyn’s mandate letter from Premier Wab Kinew, he was directed to work with the minister of advanced education to establish a Prairie Innovation Centre at Assiniboine Community College.

The minister said the people that facility will help provide workers for these larger industrial projects.

The mandate letter also directed Kostyshyn to keep open Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation offices and reopen some of the offices that were closed by the previous government in 2021.

At this point, Kostyshyn said the government is still revisiting those closures and will make a future announcement about what will be reopened.

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