Group calls for investigation of Manitoba environment commission

Environmentalists in Manitoba are calling for an investigation of the Clean Environment Commission, alleging a report released this week is biased.

Glen Koroluk, spokesman for the group Beyond Factory Farming, claims the CEC hearings upon which the report was based were biased, and he wants the provincial auditor to investigate the commission and the government.

"The researchers that the CEC hired were the same researchers that the industry hires to do their research," he said Wednesday.

"From our perspective, we got a report that was very weak. It supports the status quo, the industry, and it failed to do its job."

Earlier this week, Conservation Minister Stan Struthersannounced in response to the release of the report that a moratorium on the establishment or expansion of hog operations will continue in three regions: southeastern Manitoba, the Red River Valley and the Interlake.

He also said he accepted in principle the 48 recommendations in the report released Monday.

But Korolukalleges the province is hiding key data on water and soil tests that show the true impact of the pork industry on the environment.

"We're actually going to ask the auditor general of Manitoba to conduct an investigation of the CEC and the province of Manitoba in their role of suppressing and covering up this information that we think should have been out in the open to look at," he said.

He believes the province should have continued a ban on new and expanded hog barns across Manitoba, rather than lifting it in all areas except a large swath of south and central Manitoba.

Conservation Minister Stan Struthers said he finds accusations of bias "strange," considering he spent the past two days listening to pork producers who are unhappy with the moratorium being continued inthree regions.

"We've been hearing from groups that tell us we've went too far and we've been hearing from groups who say we should have gone further."

Struthers said he's not interested in the "little debates" but instead he wants totake on the big challenges of cleaning up Manitoba's waterways.