Andrew Dickson, the retiring general manager of Manitoba Pork, said the public’s understanding and appreciation of the pork sector’s economic contributions to the provincial economy had increased substantially over the past 16 years. 
Manitoba Pork represents the interests of the province’s 600 swine operations. 
Dickson, who retired on January 29 after 16 years as the GM, saw an evolution of the public’s attitudes toward the sector. In the 1990s with lots of expansion, public meetings with 200 or 300 people and significant rows. The meeting organizers had to call in the police at several meetings to restore order.  
“I think this effort to try and reach out to local governments, local communities and talk to them about developments, reduces some of the conflicts and improves the positive attitude,” said Dickson. 
Today some rural municipalities contact Dickson to meet because they’d like to see some barn developments very different from when he started 16 years ago. When dealing with urban audiences, it’s wrong to assume what people know, so they keep probing and talking to them. Winnipeg and the urban centres in rural Manitoba explain what the pig industry is about and why the need for more development and the positive impact on the Manitoba economy and society. 
Dickson said pork producers need to continue working with the public to maintain their faith in the industry and the benefits it brings and protect their social licence. While some people oppose the pork industry, the vast majority of the province supports it.  
Dickson pointed out several highlights during his 16 years with the council on his retirement, making good progress within the industry. At the start, the MP board members told him to make the council relevant to the hog sector’s business operation.  
“Introduce programs and services that would assist producers in their day-to-day activities and succeed in their businesses,” said Dickson. “We’ve made a real effort to put packages together of different things that would do this.” 
The other highlight was to deal directly with the challenges that face the industry. When he started, they wrapped up winning a trade case against the United States. And the board told him to help them get ahead of the game to prevent them from happening. This led to the interaction with hog producers and their organizations at the grassroots level, in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and how the American producers viewed the Canadians.  
“How we do business up here and try to knock off the myths and fables that tend to float around about subsidized Canadian production and so on.” 
Winning a big trade case at the WTO, both the provincial councils, national council, and the federal government took a major time investment, particularly with their Trade Bureau staff and their lawyers. The Canadians won the COOL, country of origin labelling case. Unfortunately, he said the Canadian pig industry never got back up to the pre-COOL regulations, but are in a better place now than in 2008, 2009. 
The PC government recently came in with a different approach and how to deal with barns in rural areas and the industry’s rebuilding. At the same time, it’s encouraging to see a significant number of new barns in the last four or five years because for seven or eight years there was no new construction. There is an air of optimism, and some producers are building or rebuilding their operations. But it’s going to be slow growth.  
“It’s going to be a couple of barns at a time and we’ll slowly restock, rebuild the inventory of our physical assets over the next ten years.” 
Pricing of the pig continues to be a significant challenge, and how to develop a new approach setting formulas in Canada for the pricing of the pig to the farmer when he ships them to a processing plant—working with the other provinces in an innovative approach with some success. A new model is in place in Quebec. Olymel is offering a new contract with producers in Western Canada. It seems reasonably attractive the other processors are trying to offer some packages that would keep producers incentivized to continue production, if not ramp it up. 
Through all of these changes in the board members and board structure. Going away from individual producers’ big meetings up to 1,500 at one time down to 200 or 300. Each is a business that employs a lot of people. This meant restructuring how to get fairer representation and the input from producers who pump out the pigs building a robust and viable board. The MP developed a good cross-representation of the industry on the board, including the big players, the Hutterite colonies, and independent producers.  
“I think we have a young staff group keen, well-trained, experienced and knowledgeable, and I’m quite pleased with how it’s all turned out.” •
— By Harry Siemens