A government-imposed moratorium on expansion of pork production threatens to destroy a $1 billion a year industry in the province, Manitoba producers said Thursday.

On Nov. 8, Conservation Minister Stan Struthers announced the construction of any new hog barns, as well as the expansion of existing hog barns, would be banned while the province's clean environment commission conducts a review of the industry.

The moratorium was one of several measures the province announced, aimed at protecting water quality and reducing the amount of phosphorous in Lake Winnipeg and other bodies of water. High levels of phosphorus have been responsible for algae blooms appearing on Lake Winnipeg.

No date has yet been set on hearings as part of the hog industry review.

Industry a 'scapegoat'

The Manitoba Pork Council said the government's ban implies that the industry is responsible for poor water quality in Lake Winnipeg, even though, they say, there is no scientific basis for that claim.

Council chairman Karl Kynoch accused the government of playing politics with the ban, saying the NDP government has been a strong partner of the hog industry since its election in 1999.

"Our industry has become the scapegoat for the problems of Lake Winnipeg in the face of an upcoming election," Kynoch said Thursday.

"We challenge the government to fully explain why it is unfairly targetting our industry with such a severe penalty with absolutely no consultation — no prior notice."

Kynoch said a ban, even a temporary one, threatens the livelihoods of the province's 1,400 hog producers, as well as 15,000 hog industry jobs.

But Conservation Minister Stan Struthers said Thursday that it's not enough to say that a temporary ban will cost Manitoba business.

"When my great-grandparents homesteaded in rural Manitoba, they did that because there was clean, abundant water in the Swan River Valley. That has always been part of our past and it needs to be part of our future," Struthers said Thursday.

"There's an economic impact if we don't protect the water, so we have to take a look at the big picture on this."

Struthers said temporarily checking the strong economic growth in the hog industry is the prudent thing to do, while the Clean Environment Commission looks at the industry's impact on water quality.

He said he hasn't fixed any dates to the commission review, in order to make sure the commission has all the time it needs to conduct its review.

Producers are part of the solution: professor

A University of Manitoba agriculture professor and expert on livestock agreed Thursday that pork producers were being unfairly targeted by the province.

The hog industry is responsible for only a fraction of pollution problems in Lake Winnipeg, said Karin Wittenberg, associate dean of research for the university's faculty of agricultural and food sciences.

Yet, Wittenberg added, the industry has led the way in working toward solutions. For example, she said, the pork industry has contributed to research done at the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment at the university.

"I think they've shown that they are proactive in dealing with the problems of Lake Winnipeg, in the support that they've provided to get solutions, to find solutions, for their producers," she said Thursday.

Wittenberg said about one per cent of phosphorus that ends up in Lake Winnipeg comes from the hog industry. The remaining 99 per cent comes from other sources, such as human sewage and natural sources, as well as phosphorus sources from jurisdictions outside Manitoba, including the United States.

The Manitoba Pork Council has the backing of Keystone Agricultural Producers, the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce in its opposition to the moratorium.