Letters - What happened to the Manitoba Farm Building Code?

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Published on Monday, January 15, 2018

Submitted
Neepawa Banner & Press

It was repealed, very quietly, one year ago. The Manitoba Farm Building Code was introduced in 2010, in response to the rash of hog barn fires that occurred in 2008. Over thirty thousand pigs were killed in barn fires in that year alone. They were tough economic times in the hog business.

The 2010 code moved buildings such as large hog barns into the light or medium industrial category. Make no mistake these are industrial facilities. With this came a number of more stringent building requirements including: a dedicated firefighting pond on site, a higher standard fire alarm system including more smoke detectors, more firewall separations (including fire-stops in the attic space), fire retardant coverings on interior walls, and spatial separation between barns.

At the time the then president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, Ian Wishart, praised these changes, saying “We believe these new standards are a practical, common-sense approach to fire safety”. I am not sure if the now Minister Wishart still holds those views.

So what changed? The government did, and the new one was looking to boost the provinces hog industry, with a three pronged “red tape” attack. The Building Code was the first prong, but it is difficult to equate these changes to mere “red tape”.

What are the consequences of repealing the more stringent code? A lower standard of fire alarm system with fewer smoke detectors, coupled with the fact that no-one lives on site, means the fire will likely be well involved when discovered. No on-site water supply means any prospect of launching a meaningful firefighting effort is lost. Fewer fire-stops and less fire retardant covering means the fire spreads rapidly, and there is no chance for containment. Clustering of barns means most likely the whole complex will go up.

So stand well back. You don’t send your firefighters into that! This is a question of ethics: As a so called civilised society – does this rollback in the building code represent progress in humane pig production, or have we in truth taken a very significant step backwards in this province? Common-sense, it would appear, is no longer required.

Jon Crowson, Oak River