Contact the Mayor:
Office of the Mayor
510 Main Street
Winnipeg, MB
R3B 1B9
Phone: 204-986-2171
Fax: 204-949-0566
Email The Mayor

The Democratic Process,
Were We Betrayed?

In November of 2005, Sam Katz suddenly unveiled a "done deal" on our city. Behind closed doors and without public consultation, the municipal and provincial governments had decided to give free land and a multi-million dollar incentive package to OlyWest, a consortium of three of Canada's biggest pork companies: Hytek from Labroquerie, Manitoba and Big Sky Farms from Humboldt, Saskatchewan (these are two of the three largest hog producers in Canada) and Olymel from Quebec (Canada's largest meatpacker).

The OlyWest plan would see a huge hog slaughtering and rendering plant (OlyWest) go up in the St. Boniface Industrial Park. It would kill and process 9000 pigs every business day, 2.25 million a year. It would hold up to 3000 pigs at any one time, making it, in effect, a mega hog barn within a few kilometres of thousands of homes, schools and businesses in St. Boniface and Transcona. Despite (or because of) the negative reception such an unpopular development would receive from people in the area and across Winnipeg, no citizens had been consulted prior to the announcement. Hoping to sneak the deal in before the holiday season, Sam Katz and his allies on City Council passed the incentive package in record time over the loud and angry objections of citizens, business leaders and civil society organizations. These groups and individuals (many of whom have come together to form the OlyOpp Alliance) questioned the democratic process (or lack thereof) as much as the deal itself, which also would spur a new wave of industrial hog barn development in Manitoba - translation: more pollution (including a greater load on critically ill Lake Winnipeg), more legalized animal abuse (think those pigs come from Old McDonald's Farm? think again), more death to small, sustainable farms and rural communities. (For more on the collateral damage of OlyWest, visit nomanipooba.net.)

It's not too late to kill this smelly (literally and figuratively) deal. The City's free land and $3.75 million dollar incentive package passed by a narrow margin. There are so many candidates in the October 25 election who have pledged to rescind the deal that Winnipegers who believe in accountable government and socially responsible development can send the deal packing merely by voting on Oct. 25. Click here to see who the good guys are. And don't forget to vote!