December 15, 2005 general meeting

A general meeting was held at the Best Western Parkland Inn in Yorkton. The work of the SCWMC over the past five years has been compiled into an Interim Report and submitted to Minister Wartman and the general public. When the results from our fall 2005 soil analysis are known, they will be incorporated into our Final Report which will be submitted to Minister Wartman in the fall of 2006.

Minister Wartman is in agreement that it is important to continue to obtain soil and environmental data, and the government may be interested in continuing with a scaled down version of soil and water sampling for another five years. We will wait and see what develops.

Our Final Report will cover the timeframe starting in the fall of 2000 (before any construction, development and operation took place) and ending on December 31, 2005.

October 21, 2005 general meeting

The SCWMC met at the Best Western Parkland Inn in Yorkton. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a press release to the general public of our Interim Report. Special guests were The Honourable Mark Wartman, Minister of Agriculture & Food, and The Honourable Clay Serby, Deputy Premier and Minister of Rural Development.

The open air press conference started at 9:45 a.m. and concluded at 10:45 a.m. with phone-in questions from the general public addressing the comments to Minister Wartman.

Minister Wartman had nothing but praise for Minister Serby's insight in setting up the SCWMC. Our solutions will have province-wide implications. In the livestock industry, we require a "value-added component" in the production-to-finishing cycle.

September 15, 2005 general meeting

The general meeting was held at the Travelodge in Yorkton. Special guest was The Honourable Clay Serby, Deputy Premier and Minister of Rural Development.

A copy of the Interim Report summarizing the monitoring results from our program from inception in the fall of 2000 to the present was presented to Minister Serby who accepted it on behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan. Mr. Serby was very complimentary and praised the commendable work that was done by the SCWMC over the past five years. The report will be used as a template to grow the rural economy of the province.

Press release of the Interim Report is tentatively planned for October 21, 2005. Minister Wartman (Agriculture and Food) and Minister Serby will plan to attend.

April 15, 2005 general meeting

The general meeting was held in Yorkton at the Travelodge. Special guests included Mr. Claude Lague, Dean of Engineering, U of S Department of Agriculture and Bio-resource Engineering, and Mrs. Huiging Guo, Assistant Professor, U of S Department of Agriculture and Bio-resource Engineering.

Mr. Lague gave a presentation on Update on Research and Service Initiatives which centered on 4 main topics: (1) Handling and land application of solid and semi-solid manure, (2) Greenhouse gas and odour emissions, (3) Hydrogen sulfide issues, and (4) Environmental management standards.

Mrs. Guo gave an update to our Odour Research Project that was conducted around the Rama area. Her presentation was split into two stages: Stage 1 was from December, 2001 to November, 2002 and Stage 2 was from May, 2003 to April, 2004. The Final Report will be completed this coming August.

March 22, 2005 general meeting

A general meeting was held in Yorkton with special guests Keith Head (agrologist) from Head & Associates Ltd. and Calvin Daniels (freelance writer) of Calmardin Editorial Services Ltd.

Mr. Head gave a presentation on the soil monitoring program to date and Mr. Daniels will be contracted to do the Interim Report of the SCWMC.

February 7, 2005 general meeting

A general meeting of all members (committee and resource staff) was held to update everyone on the status and direction the committee was proceeding in with the writing of the Preliminary and Final Reports.

An excellent perspective on the hog industry was presented to us on a provincial, national and international level by Florian Possberg of Big Sky Farms and Neil Ketilson of Sask Pork. The industry recognizes the importance of developing a slaughter/processing facility here in western Canada (Saskatoon or Winnipeg) for future expansion and growth in international markets.

January 24, 2005 general meeting

This meeting continued with the theme set from the meeting held on January 10, 2005. Special guest Calvin Daniels, a freelance writer from Calmardan Editorial Services was invited to the meeting to give his expert advice on how to proceed with the writing of the committee's report. He is considering to contract out his services to the SCWMC and assist us with the writing of the Preliminary and Final Report.

The Preliminary Report will consist of:

• The Long Form: this report will be directed to the Minister (Serby) and government officials. Included in this report will be several Appendix's featuring the technical data collected in the field and corresponding reports from our independent consultants; news stories about the committee; bios of the committee members; other relevant information as required which backs-up the conclusions and recommendations in the report;
• The Short Form: this report will be a general summary only and will be directed towards the general public. It will not be as technical in nature, and will not include the Appendixes.

The Final Report will not be written until all the field data is collected and analyzed. We anticipate this being done by early 2006.

January 10, 2005 general meeting

A general meeting of the SCWMC was held in Yorkton on January 10, 2005. Special guests attending the meeting were Minister Clay Serby, the Deputy Premier of Saskatchewan; and Ken Acton and John Jacques, both from the Saskatchewan Department of Justice, Mediation Services branch.

The meeting centered on producing a written definitive report with conclusions and recommendations based solidly on the sample data that has been collected by the committee. This report will represent the reason why the committee was formed, and will be concentrating on environmental and health concerns expressed by the general public regarding all Intensive Livestock Operation (ILO) development in Saskatchewan, be it hogs, beef or chickens.

Of the three main categories monitored and from which data was collected -- water, soil and air -- the final collection of all data from the air and soil monitoring programs will not be completed till the end of 2005. A preliminary draft report will be written by the end of June, 2005, using available data to that point in time. The final report of the committee will be written in the early part of 2006, and hopefully available for distribution to the general public before the spring of 2006. This is the current timeline the committee is working towards.