EVENT: Mar. 19 - SK AG MIN - Speaker - Federal Pastures

[Oscar]

EVENT: March 19 - MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE SPEAKER ON FEDERAL PASTURES

[ http://pfrapastureposts.wordpress.com/2 ... -pastures/ ]

The Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action Plan's next talk in their Native Prairie Speaker Series features Brant Kirychuk, SK Ministry of Agriculture, giving a Federal Community Pasture Update.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

12:10 pm, Saskatoon, SK

Room 1039, Education Building, University of Saskatchewan (28 Campus Drive)

Folks from other parts of the province can still take it in: the presentation will be broadcast live at

[ www.ustream.tv/channel/native-prairie-speaker-series ]

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SARM coming around on pasture issues

[ http://www.producer.com/2015/03/sarm-co ... re-issues/ ]

by Sean Pratt Mar. 19th, 2015

Delegates confident SARM directors will push province on returning federal pastures to rural municipalities

Saskatchewan’s rural municipalities are going to try the diplomacy route with the province rather than the courts to resolve a simmering dispute over pastureland.

The RM of Reno withdrew its resolution calling on the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities to launch a class action lawsuit against the province for failing to return federal pastures to RMs after the community pasture program ended.

The lawsuit resolution was originally passed at the 2014 annual convention, when SARM was instructed to lobby the province on the issue and to initiate a class action lawsuit if the province didn’t take the necessary action by Aug. 31, 2014.

Paul Heglund, councillor with the RM of Reno, said SARM didn’t come close to following the intent of that resolution, but he believes it is now fully committed to lobbying the government.

“We’ll back off for a while and see if they’re going to be helpful,” he said.

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“While there are hints in some of the minutes that some RMs believe that was maybe going to be the case, there has been no evidence of any actual agreements that were made.”

Baran said the RMs can’t provide a formal agreement because a lot of deals were done by handshake in the 1930s.

“I would certainly like to see the government take the high road and do what Manitoba did,” he said.

Manitoba Agriculture helped fund the creation of the Association of Manitoba Community Pastures and is providing the pastureland to the association lease-free.

Heglund said the RMs are not looking for a land grab. They simply want to ensure that the pastures continue to exist to support cow-calf operations.

“What we want to do is to allow the cattle industry to continue. If they close these pastures, a lot of ranches will have to fold up,” he said.

However, he doesn’t think the province will give up the pastureland without a fight, which is why the RMs want SARM’s financial assistance in case a class action lawsuit becomes necessary.

Four RMs have each contributed $25,000 to a legal fund.

“We’d prefer the province would sit down and talk. The court action may be the only way to get them to the table,” said Heglund.

The RMs will draft a new resolution for SARM’s midterm convention and hope to get unanimous support for it.