Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler announced yesterday (20 February 2018):

This is an important step toward modernising the agricultural Crown lands leasing policies with the goal of supporting a thriving livestock industry in our province.

I encourage all Manitobans with an interest in this issue to review the consultation document and share their opinions. This will help guide our government’s policies and ensure the new tendering process is transparent and accountable.

A consultation document released today highlights a number of areas to provide input on including:

• possible limits on how much agricultural Crown land a person or farm entity can hold under a lease or permit;
• what additional eligibility criteria should be considered to hold a lease or permit;
• design considerations of a forage tendering process; and
• appropriate terms for the length of forage leases and renewable permits.

The deadline to submit comments is April 6.

The new Agricultural Crown Lands Leases and Permits Regulation was introduced in December 2017 and deals with forage leases, hay and grazing permits, and cropping leases.

The minister noted the system will ensure prices paid by producers for these leases and permits will more accurately reflect their market value. He added the shift to a tendering system for all agricultural Crown lands is expected to be in place for fall 2018.

As reported by Manitoba Government News