The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Less red tape for small farms
Province simplifies wastewater rules
The financial savings are small, but the hope is the reduction in hassle will be huge.
The provincial government says a new, simpler approach to wastewater regulations around processing facilities on small farms will save time and money while maintaining environmental standards.
The Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture has been asking since 2013 for the province to lessen the regulatory burden on farming and on-farm processing.
“That’s the wheels of government,” said NSFA president Tim Marsh.
“You can’t give up on things; we stayed persistent.”
The changes, which took effect last week, mean 11 activities will now be regulated through standard wastewater approval requirements. They include construction, operation or reclamation involving:
■ poultry, red meat, inland fish, dairy or dairy products, vegetable or fruit processing plants
■ distilleries or wineries
■ breweries that produce 150,000 litres or more of alcoholic beverages per year
■ fish meal plants
■ food additive or supplement manufacturing plants
“When you’ve got someone with a small operation, they had to follow the same regs as a large, multinational-type company. It’s a little daunting for people,” Marsh said.
“For a lot of producers, it was more like an industrial permitting process, a ‘one size fits all’ approach, and especially for small scale producers it was rather onerous for them to try and navigate that.”
Marsh said he thinks the biggest beneficiaries of the new regulations will be market garden operations and medium-size farms.
“We’re still working through it to see how it’s going to unfold for the producers . . . who are still following all the environmental regulations
for food processing,” he said.
“Nothing’s going to change on the food safety side, but (what will is) some of the paperwork and the record keeping that maybe doesn’t really need to be done to the depth they had to before.”
The province’s Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness estimates the changes will save each
business $308 annually.
“These changes reduce red tape while ensuring that environmental standards are met,” Environment Minister Timothy Halman said in a news release.
“With input from industry, we are better aligning regulatory approvals to environmental and business needs.”