The Rural Voice, 2002-04, Page 54Ag News
Steckle pleads for help with animal welfare bill
Huron -Bruce MP Paul Steckle urges
farmers to make their voices heard now
regarding Bill C-15, proposed animal
welfare legislation.
"Get your letters written. Make your
phone calls," he told livestock
commodity representatives attending
the annual Members of Parliament
Dinner of the Huron County Federation
of Agriculture, March 16 in Clinton.
Steckle noted that Bill C-15 was the
first bill in history to be split, largely
because of protests from the Liberal
Party's rural caucus members. He said
caucus members worked with many
groups and if they could have had
about nine words changed, could have
supported the bill. The key, he said,
was giving animals rights and taking
them out of the property section.
"There's a difference between animate
and inanimate property," Steckle said.
The issue is being driven by the
International Fund for Animal Welfare,
Loan fund urged to environmental projects
A provincial loan fund for
environmental improvement
programs, similar to that used for tile
drains, was urged by one municipal
official at, the Huron County
Federation of Agriculture's Members
of Parliament Dinner, March 16.
Bill Dowson, councillor for the
Lakeshore Municipality of Bluewater
told Helen Johns, MPP for Huron -
Bruce, that it now costs $12,000 to
$20,000 to install a new septic tank
and many people don't have the
money and can't get a loan from a
bank. If people could come to the
municipality and get a loan similar to
a tile drain loan to be paid back over
10 years, "I can guarantee a lot of our
water (contamination) problems
would disappear in five years."
This isn't a handout, Dowson
said, with the loan being registered
against the property so it's secure.
Wayne Hamilton of the corn
producers supported Dowson's idea,
pointing out the current interest rate
for tile drain loans is eight per cent
so the province is getting a
competitive return in interest.0
Steckle said.
"Please, don't go soft, go hard (on
the issue)" he urged. "Nothing is too
harsh to say to the government on this
issue. I've done everything I can. Write
to the minister of justice. I can't stress
this too strongly. I'm pleading with you
for help."
The issue had been raised by Jean
Lubbers of Huron County Pork
Producers who complained about the
situation in Europe, where farm
practices are being redesigned under
pressure from non -farmers. "We're
getting dictated to by people who really
don'tknow what cruelty is," Lubbers
said. "They're putting human qualities
on animals. We don't want to be
dictated to."
In her brief for the Huron County
Pork Producers' Association, Lubbers
pointed out that when new
requirements are imposed on farmers
such as new penning or larger
buildings because of greater space
requirements for animals, they have no
way of passing this cost along to
consumers and so must absorb the
entire cost of the reform themselves.
Governments must help, she urged.0
Storm-trooper manure cops not needed, Bonnett says
Continued from page 49
municipal councillors that "manure
police" were needed to make sure
farmers didn't spread too much
manure on their land, Johns said
science will the basis of enforcement.
"As I understand it OMAFRA would
be setting up a science -based
regulation," she said. Soil testing
would be used to see if a nutrient
management plan was actually
working. Enforcement officers would
go out if the soil tests showed there
was a problem.
Ron Bonnett, vice-president of the
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
said a local peer review committee
should be the first to receive
complaints about farmers not
following their NMP, determining if
it's a legal matter or just a
misunderstanding. "The last thing we
need is a force of storm troopers
running around with measuring
sticks," he said.
50 THE RURAL VOICE
These committees would include
both farmers and non -farmers,
Bonnett said. To help the committee
members make informed judgements,
"We're asking that the government
spend some money training the
committees," he said.
Representatives of several
livestock commodities at the meeting
expressed concern about biosecurity
from inspectors going on farms.
Huron Federation Vice -President
Neil Vincent also worried that
regulations shouldn't create a
situation where only large farms can
afford to meet the requirements. A lot
of small farming operations in
Waterloo County, for instance, will
be hurt by the computer model being
used, Vincent said.
Johns said her understanding was
that largefarms would be involved
first followed by medium farms and
finally small farms so it would be
two or three years before smaller
operations would be affected.
Meanwhile several people
questioned a current requirement that
there be twice as much land allotted
for spreading dry manure as liquid
manure.
And Neil Stapleton wondered
what was the science behind
requirement to cover dry manure
piles.
"I'm very hopeful people will
come forward with this information,"
Johns said, urging farmers to put
officials on the spot when the
regulations are being formulated.
Meanwhile others worried about
the cost of implementing changes on
their farm required by the Nutrient
Management Bill. Alex Westerhout
of the chicken producers pointed out
that if just $10,000 was required for
each of Ontario's 15,000 livestock
farmers the cost would top
$150,000.0