It’s time that the provincial government gave farmers their due and not simply the blame.

Since the NDP government came to power in 1999 they have done everything in their power to blame farmers for a host of environmental problems. It’s been convenient for the NDP to put the blame on farmers for issues such as the continuing deterioration of Lake Winnipeg because it helped to deflect from the government’s own lack of real action to clean-up the lake.

But the fact is that there are few professions that have undergone the kind of transformation that farming has in an effort to improve environmental practices. Today there are a myriad of different environmental programs and policies that the farmers of Manitoba and Canada participate in and support. After all, who has a more vested interest in preserving the environmental integrity of the land and the water than the very farmers who make their living from it?

That is why so many producers have participated in both current and past programs that are designed to help ensure that their farms are reaching production efficiencies and minimizing environmental risks. Where programs made sense and made a difference, farmers have been enthusiastic participants.

However, under the NDP government in Manitoba, the approach has too often been one of blame rather than consultation. While Manitoba Progressive Conservatives had asked the government to make environmental decisions based upon science and not politics, the NDP have ignored leading scientists like Dr. Don Flatten from Manitoba and Dr. David Schindler from the University of Manitoba. Instead the NDP simply blamed all the problems on Manitoba farmers, ignoring all of the changes in practices farmers have made to contribute to a clean environment.

We believe that the approach to take is to bring together producers and experts into a discussion and begin from the perspective of recognizing the many advances that farmers have already made to protect the environment. Offer them the respect they deserve. From there you can move forward cooperatively to come up with ideas that both benefit the environment and that allow farmers to operate their businesses in a way that is sustainable.

But it starts first from the principle of respect for the farmers for the work they have done and what they have contributed to a clean environment. It starts from a point of respect and a willingness to work together to make decisions based on good science, not on good politics. It’s an approach the NDP have failed to take since coming to office and it’s one that is disrespectful to a sector that deserves to be acknowledged for the work they have done.