Members of the Mountain View County Agricultural Services Board will be reviewing the provincial government's responses to recent resolutions put forward by the Alberta Agricultural Services Board (AASB).
During the recent ag services meeting at the county office, members were asked to review the government's responses before making comments, if any, at the next board meeting.
The AASB passed a number of resolutions during its 2013 provincial conference. The government has now provided responses to those resolutions.
• One AASB resolution called on the province to “review their current weed control programming and funding for bed and shore water bodies to ensure the effectiveness of the programs, as well as implementing a monitoring and assessment program to ensure that weed populations are dealt with proactively.”
The government's response stated, in part, that “Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) encourages municipalities to continue working with our local area staff to identify and control weeds through mutually beneficial partnership agreements.”
• One resolution requested that Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development make it a requirement, under the Agricultural Pests Act, that individuals and especially commercial pest control companies, finding a Norway rat, be required by law to report the presence of the pest, alive or dead, to provincial pest inspectors. And further that the department immediately take steps to inform pest control companies and the public that notification of the presence of rats, dead or alive, is required by law.
The government's response states, in part, that the Agricultural Pests Act will soon be reviewed and that “the contents of this resolution will be provided to the pest management branch for consideration during the review process.”
• One resolution called on ESRD to “fast track and initiate a provincial strategy to eradicate wild boar as a pest in Alberta, followed by100 per cent guaranteed escapeless penning regulations and enforcement program to address wild boar in captivity.”
The government's response states, in part, that ESRD “recognizes that the wild boar pest problem continues to increase and the Regulatory Services Division has been focused on dealing with this issue in two stages.
“The first will be to look at the need for a regulation to stop the escape of farmed boars. The second state will be to enhance or develop a program to eradicate the wild boar.”
• Another resolution requested that the Alberta Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) “undertake to have adequate and qualified staff in place, on retention if needed, to ensure hail investigations take place with minimal delay to harvest operations.”
The government's response stated, in part, that “our adjusting management team is initiating some changes to processes and staffing designed to reduce wait times for our clients while maintaining the integrity of our loss assessments. We expect that the combined effect of these initiatives will significantly reduce the amount of time clients will have to wait for an adjuster.”
The Mountain View County Agricultural Services Board, which advises the municipality on agriculture related issues, will next meet again on Aug. 19.
