AOPA Feedback
Barry and Lana Love—Hardisty, Alberta
This has been a frustrating change for the citizens of Alberta - we have had our voice completely stripped away by this Government with these new acts.
Agriculture Minister Shirley McLellan now knows how it feels to no longer have any control over your own industry through the U.S. border closing. That loss of control is a very tough pill to swallow for us all—but as farmers we lose twice —once from our own Government and the second time through the border closing.
These new rules and regulations seem to bounce all over the map—it appears that you’re trying to do the right thing but then you turn around and do nothing. You claim to have hired all these inspectors but your inspections are all announced ahead of time, giving the CFO owner/operator time to hide any misdealings—inspectors must show up un-announced to get the real picture of how a CFO is operating and why the neighbours are complaining. To complain against your neighbour goes against what every farmer has been taught all our lives—be a ‘good’ neighbour and never complain. Well, it has now come to the point that our CFO neighbours are not being ‘good’ neighbours to us by bringing all the bad odour, health risks and pollution onto our doorsteps. We know of a case where a CFO’s neighbours complained to the NRCB about the odours from his pig barn—these people can’t open their windows or spend any time outdoors and their lives are extremely affected by their neighbour. The NRCB inspector called the CFO owner to set up a time in 2 days to inspect the operation, when the inspector arrived, fresh straw had been blown onto the lagoon, reducing the smell so the inspector reported the operation was in compliance. This would be the same affect as if the Police called the local drug house to tell them they were coming in 2 days to inspect for drugs—do you honestly believe they would find any??
This business of grandfathering existing operations is absolutely ludicrous. You must first determine the number of animals at each operation—this can be done using the previous 5 years tax records to prove animal numbers, an average of the 5 years is their size limit. If they want to have more animals, they must apply for an expansion. Get rid of the 2 levels and have only approvals with directly affected parties including all neighbours within a 5 mile radius of the CFO and the manure spreading lands.
Don’t just ask for these neighbours opinions—actually listen to what they are saying—most of them know the land better than any expert ever will—they have seen how the land reacts under every possible condition that your experts can only guess at.
We have been purchasing crop insurance for years. They know how many acres we farm—we must stay within those seeded acres numbers unless we buy more land - in other words we can’t say we farm 1800 acres one year, 2000 acres the next year and 1600 the next—their records show the inaccuracies—keeping us honest. You have nothing to keep CFO owner/operators honest. We have to be able to do this right the first time because once CFO’s are in place—they aren’t going to change. We still don’t have tough enough regulations in this Province—right now it’s like driving on the highways without any speed limits. CFO owner/operators know that all they have to do is apply and it will either be rubber stamped (as a lot have already) or if they appeal the NRCB decision to the NRCB review board —then it will be approved.
And as far as enforcement—it’s cheaper to pay the fines than it is to do things right. We are also sending our opinions to Ken Nicol and Raj Pannu—our way of trying to keep you honest.
