MESSAGE FROM THE
GENERAL MANAGER
Brian Lemon General Manager
A
s I finish my first full year as MBP’s General Manager, I can say it continues to be a pleasure to work on behalf of you, the beef producers of Manitoba. I have the privilege to work with an excellent and committed staff, and can assure every member that you certainly get full value for your money with their dedicated effort. I also get the opportunity to work with an incredibly dedicated group of directors who give so freely of their time for the betterment of our industry. I want to start my report with a bit of a reminder of how much we value the members’ contributions to MBP’s activities through their investment of their provincial check-off dollars. It is never lost on me that the ability of MBP to deliver meaningful results for beef producers relies on a producer’s choice to support us with their check-off dollars; that it is a test every day to ensure we show value for money to producers with everything we do. Unlike some other provinces Manitoba’s provincial beef check-off is mandatory but refundable. This means that it must initially get paid on every sale, but that producers have the right to opt out of the association and ask for a refund. Some provinces work within a regime where the provincial check-off is non-refundable. While a non-refundable regime might bring more certainty to MBP’s funding levels, it also wouldn’t provide us with the same daily test to ensure we bring value to producers. To be honest, I believe that the ability to refund is a positive, that makes sure that the board and the staff are accountable to the members. I have a short message to those producers who choose to request a refund and surrender many of their membership rights in MBP. While MBP respects their decision to exercise their right to refund, I would encourage them to allow MBP to explain how we bring value to all producers, including those who choose to refund. While not able to exercise the rights of membership (vote, make motions, etc.), these producers are certainly welcome to come to our district and annual meetings to listen and to ask questions to learn about how we are working for all Manitoba producers’ benefit. I am genuinely interested to understand why individuals choose to request their refund and to explain how they continue to realize on industry benefits funded by their neighbors and colleagues. I look forward to hearing from producers who request refunds, and will engage them in conversation at the end of which they will still be free to make their choice. A concern raised during MBP’s 2016 district meetings and one we are still working to address, is how to deal with larger producers who pay significant sums of provincial check-off and who potentially refund a percentage of their checkoff dollars. They could be leaving more checkoff with MBP than smaller producers, but forfeit their membership because they chose to request
a refund of a portion of the check-off paid. This involves many complicated questions and there is no easy option that make sense in every situation. It is being looked at by MBP staff and will potentially result in proposed bylaw changes. As I look back at the past year and the various issues that kept us busy, we continued to see progress on the bovine TB file. We worked with government officials to ensure nobody lets their commitment to achieving the final objective of TB freedom wane. Another disease also reared its head again this year with three confirmed cases of bovine anaplasmosis in southeastern Manitoba. The last time we had confirmed cases of anaplasmosis here the disease was still on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) list of federally reportable diseases. Since that time, the CFIA has determined that the disease does not pose a human health concern and doesn’t pose any trade implications thus, in this recent case MBP worked with provincial veterinary staff to inform the province’s choice of response. MBP also worked with the provincial government to ensure that productive animals were not needlessly destroyed. Predator losses were another significant priority for MBP. The file continues to be moving slower than we would like, but we are hopeful that the changes to leadership at Sustainable Development, including a new Deputy Minister well familiar with wildlife issues will bring renewed priority on this matter within the department. We continue to push both Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires and Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler to support the work of the industrygovernment working group, and an eventual pilot program to assist producers to deal with problem predators and ensure fair compensation for losses. The beef sector has a great story to tell in terms of the significant ecosystem benefits it provides. Our producers are the biggest reason why there are still grasslands on the prairies, and we need to be recognized for the benefits these perennial grasses and forages bring to the environment. We will continue to point out that our grasslands and pastures are part of the story that Premier Brian Pallister is using to convince the federal government that Manitoba deserves its own Made-in-Manitoba carbon pricing program. The Premier has been arguing that Manitoba made prior investments in clean energy (hydroelectricity) which needs to be recognized by Ottawa. In the same way, our producers have long been investing in carbon reductions by maintaining our grass and pastures as huge carbon sinks, pulling tonnes of carbon back out of the air. To ask Ottawa to recognize Manitoba’s past investments in clean energy and not recognize our producers’ past investments would be contradictory. Our grass and pastures provide benefits to air quality and the carbon footprint, to flood mitigation and
water management, to biodiversity and species at risk, as well as to water quality. We have a great environmental story to tell. Crown lands was another active file in 2017 and will keep us busy in 2018. Provincial legislators, in one of their final acts prior to the Christmas break passed regulatory changes and enacted a new Agricultural Crown Lands Leases and Permits Regulation, combining and replacing the prior Agricultural Crown Lands Leases Regulation and Agricultural Crown Lands Grazing and Permits Regulation. The impetus to make a change to the regulations was Manitoba’s entry into the New West Partnership Trade Agreement, but the province used the opportunity to make broader changes to the regulations. MBP certainly supported the province’s efforts to modernize the previous regulations to bring more transparency and predictability to the allocation process. MBP provided comments to Manitoba Agriculture about where we want to see improvements in the agricultural Crown lands program, but was not consulted on the draft regulations and did not have an opportunity to comment on the proposed changes prior to them receiving Royal Assent. There is still lots of work to be done following up on the regulatory changes as much of what impacts producers is found in the policy interpretations. MBP looks forward to an open and public consultation process on the new policy development. Finally, we can’t have an annual wrap-up without mention of the weather. Weather-wise this past year was pretty good for Manitoba farmers. With the exception of some spring flooding, for the most part, most of Manitoba was able to get an early and productive start. The annual cropping sector had an incredible start due to a very dry May, and cattle producers were able to get a good start as well after a very wet and challenging fall and freeze-up in 2016. In closing, this past year has certainly had its share of challenges, but also saw a decent season as well as some better prices for our cattle. As we look forward to 2018, there is always reason for optimism. The district meetings and AGM are a great chance to get out and meet producers and hear your concerns and your ideas. I encourage you all to come out and get engaged and challenge us to continue to bring value for your check-off investments. If you are not happy with what we are doing, the only way we know is if you talk to us. If you are not a current member of MBP, I ask you to consider talking to me about why you choose not to support MBP and see if there is a way that we can bring you value. On behalf of the rest of the staff − Maureen Cousins, Chad Saxon, Elisabeth Harms and Deb Walger - I look forward to working with you and on your behalf in the coming year. Thank you.
S TA F F Brian Lemon
General Manager 4
2 017 R E P O R T TO M E M B E R S
Maureen Cousins Policy Analyst
Chad Saxon
Communications Coordinator
Elisabeth Harms Executive Assistant
Deb Walger Finance
