Keystone Agriculture Producers and the Government of Manitoba have been discussing new agriculture equipment regulations. KAP President Dan Mazier says some changes were made to the rules in the late 90's and never got another update, adding transportation regulations have been a kind of void since then.
"They're very outdated policies and their asking us simple things like throttle controls and ignition switches. The department came to us and said 'Here's ten bullet points that we're considering to start with, what do you think?', and we threw out half of them because they're just not relevant anymore like having glass in windows and things like that."
Mazier, who also sits on the Canadian Standards Association Ag Technical Committee with access to all the major manufacturers, says the Province also got an update as far as national regulations and what's going on in other provinces.
"One thing we didn't want to see was a different standard being set here in Manitoba versus in Saskatchewan or Ontario so they're going to look at that. There's lots of good, modern work being done that I don't think the Province has to do too much work."
Meantime, Transport Canada has outlined the next steps of the country's new rail transportation legislation.
Mazier was a part of the latest meeting and says the Federal Transport Committee is returning to Ottawa early to start listening to feedback on the new bill. He says KAP's message was loud and clear - that the gap being created between the old bill the and new bill is a bit of concern, particularly with regards to inter-switching.
Source : Portageonline