Farm Safety Week

Tuesday March 22, I spoke in the Legislature on Farm Safety Week.  My comments are below (from Hansard)

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Deputy Speaker, I want to begin my comments on farm safety week by–with a big thank you to the keystone agri­cul­ture producers for their efforts over many years to improve farm safety. The KAP (Keystone Agricultural Producers) organi­zation is to be complimented for these efforts and to be applauded for making an im­por­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the safety of farmers through­out Manitoba.

      The MLA, in his reso­lu­tion–the MLA for Dauphin - says that agri­cul­ture is one of the most dangerous industries in Canada. It doesn't necessarily have to be this way. In fact, it is improving and, yet, the MLA for Dauphin also comments that in his area the proportion of farms with a farm safety plan is low.

      Indeed, I've heard from another source that the proportion of farms with a farm safety plan may be as low as 5 per cent. There clearly is sig­ni­fi­cant room for im­prove­ment in this area - perhaps, im­prove­ment in the way that farm safety plans are done as well as in the im­prove­ment in enlisting more farmers to develop and use farm safety plans.

      At the MLA for Dauphin, when asked, "What is a common example of a safety issue?" talked about the problem of farmers using equip­ment in a way that pulls hydro lines down. Surely, a good item to put in a farm safety plan is the location of hydro lines or planning to put them underground, as the MLA for Midland has talked about, so that the problem of dangerous hydro lines and interaction with hydro lines in a way that can be dangerous, can be diminished and the dangers associated with this can be eliminated.

      The good news, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is that the time-lost-to-injury rate has come down significantly from 2011 to 2020. This is likely, in part, from im­prove­ments in machinery, equip­ment, which is becoming safer and safer in a variety of aspects, including reducing problems with hearing loss as many of the current cabs are much quieter.

      But time lost to injury, I believe, includes only farm workers, not owners or farm families. Owners are also curiously exempt from following some of the safety approaches which are mandatory for workers. And owners, including anyone in the farm family, on a family farm are–I would guess–not included in the time-lost-to-injury statistics. So there is room for better im­prove­ment in the way we gather infor­ma­tion on farm safety, and farm injuries and time lost to work. And I hope that the Keystone Agri­cul­tural Producers will continue to work and looking for im­prove­ments in these areas.

      I had hoped that the MLA for Dauphin would have given more details on the most common farm accidents and measures to prevent such accidents. This sort of infor­ma­tion is very im­por­tant if we're going to make progress, day by day and year by year, in reducing accidents and in reducing injuries. Hopefully, the MLA for Dauphin will provide this infor­ma­tion at another time, and give us this infor­ma­tion on another occasion.

      I want to say, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that Manitoba Liberals are fully sup­port­ive of the efforts to improve farm safety and this reso­lu­tion and believe that im­prove­ments in farm safety based on evidence and on common sense will be needed and im­por­tant as we make progress in reducing farm injuries and farm accidents.

      And, lastly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I want to make a comment on the situation with regard to Crown lands, which has been brought up. Manitoba Liberals have met with many who have been very badly affected by the Pallister-Stefanson gov­ern­ments' changes to the management of Crown lands. We continue to believe that the approach taken was detrimental to many farmers and, indeed, to com­mu­nities, because we need to be supporting not just farmers, but the whole com­mu­nities.

      And, also, that the approach taken may be quite detrimental not only in that it increased costs to farmers, but it increased uncertainties, and is not often optimum in terms of long-run stewardship of the Crown lands in the way that the unit transfers was taken away, and those who take over Crown lands may be more likely to be focused on short-term gains than long-term gains. It is some­thing that will remain to be seen as things evolve, but it is–remains to be a concern.

      So with this–those comments, I thank members for this op­por­tun­ity to talk about a very im­por­tant issue, which is farm safety, and I hope we can move together with farmers and Keystone Agri­cul­tural Producers in this effort to reduce injuries and make farms places which are safer.

      Thank you.