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I am a concerned resident of the RM of Whitehead. I live in the immediate vicinity of Kemnay just west of Brandon along the 1A.  
 
Last night I was notified for the first time that the RM of Whitehead has given conditional approval for a slaughter house to be built immediately north of hwy 1, directly across the highway from Kemnay, approximately 1 mile from my house. Last night I was notified by other concerned private residences from the RM that I am outside of the required distance from the slaughter house and therefore I was not notified prior to the RM counsel reviewing and approving its application. I am highly disappointed in the RM of Whitehead that they pushed this through counsel, approved it and never notified the vast majority of thee residences in the immediate vicinity.  
 
I have significant concerns over environmental damage, water contamination, smell, and loss of land value due to a slaughter house being built and operated.  
 
If there are other residences that live in the immediate vicinity of Kemnay that are concerned about this, I would recommend that you call or email the RM, also notify your local politician. This is really concerning on how it was pushed through without it being widely publicly announced.  
 
This project should not have been approved without significant consultation from local stake holders, government agencies and environmental experts.

Your concern and it sounds like your RM handled the situation badly but Manitoba desperately needs new and local slaughter capacity to comply with likely future restrictions on travelling time and distance for livestock. Having said that local resident concern and environmental considerations should certainly be paramount.

By slaughter house are they meaning 10-15 animals a week like an local abbitiore, or 100 animals a week like a smaller facility, or finally 1000+ animals.  
Big differences between those three types of plants.

This can go both ways depending on size of operations. Local RM's really need to have money coming from somewhere other than government funding. A project like this will provide much needed tax revenue for the RM. This will bring much needed jobs to the area. Housing prices could increase due to worker demand. This would help our cattle industry in reducing greenhouse gases and shipping costs to get animals to processing plants, sometimes provinces away. Plants like this are also big contributors to local organizations and charities. With projects like this there are strict environmental conditions that must be met. No waste isn't going to be dumped in the back 40 and left there to leech into the ground.

The RM followed the procedures that were already in place in regards to resident notification. We as a society cannot move the "bar" when someone comes to town and meets the requirements. This is why no large projects are getting completed in Canada. Company A comes in and meets the requirements, then wait hold up we need to also do these others things because we changed our requirements.

Well said.

How many animals a week?

Sorry Don, here are your numbers.  
 
Number of animals per day are starting at 500-600 for year 1 and going upto 1000-1500 per day after that.

Definitely a larger style plant. Not wanting to be a downer on this but wonder where that many animals are going to be coming from. Unless things change, finding enough animals to keep a plant this size running likely will be difficult. Right now an animal on feed will put you in the red, and the plant might make sense as far as the processing numbers go, but margins in that industry are not a guarantee.

I have been to three different slaughter houses and I have never smelled anything. Zero odour.

We ship a lot of cattle out of this province. Being the 3rd largest producer of beef I think we can make this work. Brooks can do 4000 per day.

Presume that somewhere in the councils minutes the proposal will be noted and acted upon, recommendations made , queries brought up, land usage variation orders etc.  
Now as concerned citizens we all dutifully read the minutes of our respective RM's and possibly attend meetings to make sure we are aware of what is happening.  
Perhaps someone can enlighten us as to what transpired in the council meetings.

Thats the greatest news ive heard since the coronavirus!  
 
Great for even Brandon !

Great news for Cattle farmers! I will support them and I will be their good neighbour!

sounds like a 'not in my backyard' situation.

an urban resident in a rural environment

I think more info is needed. It could be someone wants to open a small abattoir. (butcher shop)

He's retired and has nothing better to do. Want's the ideal and perfect country life.

Now, now CoB Trevor have a little empathy for your fellow man...  
 
However, the $500K houses in Kemnay now that made me chuckle a little bit.

I have had a look through the online minutes for RM Whitehead but unless I am missing something I cannot see any reference to a slaughter plant whatsoever. Would it not also need provincial approval.  
Could the op advise how he was informed, maybe a copy of the letter.

I understand the concerns which are valid, such a plant would enable Manitoba’s beef herd to become even more sustainable and reduce food miles. Canada’s cattle herd is currently shrinking at an alarming rate and this would provide opportunity for smaller scale local producers to finish cattle in Manitoba rather than shipping them out live over long distances. Such a facility could bring much needed work to the area, and would create sustainable long term economic growth. I hope and expect that correct protocol has been followed by the RM, it is in their own interest to do so.

I understand this is a 24x 30 building employing 2 full time 3 part time employees to start and if the thing go well an expansion to a 60 x 60 building and a few more employees,

I was just trying to run numbers, and unless there was going to be a fairly large feedlot going in nearby with the idea of vertical integration, like at Brooks, the idea did not make sense.  
It’s true beef cow numbers are dropping every year, but it’s more of a situation of economics of scale, unless you have another source of income 50 or 100 cows just doesn’t cut it.

It is ironic how on both sides of this argument people demonstrate to possess very little facts about this addition yet those who defend it seem to be so sure it will employ so many people and be so good for local farmers. How do you know? Based on what facts, I haven’t seen any on this thread.  
 
For all you know it could be highly automated and see the need to employ an insignificant amount of people at all.  
 
Also, if one of poster’s on here is indeed correct and that the expectation is leading up to 1000-1500 head a day, the processor will want a steady and uniform herd to slaughter. The probability is likely going to be pretty high then that it will be supplied only by a very limited number of seemingly larger farmers. Sure they may be local but that money will likely not be distributed evenly to local farmers of just any size.  
 
So if this is the case, then yes people will be employed included farmers as the supplier of the commodity. But I would caution on the assumption that it benefit many rather than what would likely happen and that a select few would benefit and very well for those select few.  
 
Again I only assume because this has been the trend in literally every single province, including our own, across the entire country, United States, Mexico and Brazil to name a few. Whether for cattle, pigs or poultry, all the same. But hey, complete speculation at this point. I could be utterly wrong. Why believe the evidence of vertical integration on the small to medium sized farmer in all these locations, right?  
 
By the sounds of it, no one seems to know too much about this so it’s hard to say to it will employ so many people and be so good for the community just as we don’t know if it will be an environmental disaster for neighbors. But I do find it ironic that we currently are in a worldwide lock down because of a (likely) zoonotic virus and still rooting for mass slaughtering of animals. Oh the irony!

1000-1500 birds or 50 hog or 10 beef per day for 2 government inspected days, then process the rest of the week as per Mr. Hentons application. with a meat counter in front  
 
Edited by my22cents, 2020-03-16 21:34:07

May not benefit my farm directly but as far as I’m concerned any new buyer in the local market place is positive.

have a feeling the OP is against it no matter what procedure the RM followed.

There are 'bigger fish to fry' i.e. 'more important things going on' right now than arguing about municipal process.  
 
And it's likely that there will be a lot of failed business initiatives and associated bankruptcies in our near future. This particular proposed business may or may not get off the ground. Things are changing.  
 
Think of the new Holiday Inn in Brandon or the new Kam Lung's. They're stuck with the consequences of really bad timing that's not of their own making  
 
Regardless - the O.P. should have little trouble finding some lawyer or another to take his or her money.

Think you’re correct sadly. It’s honestly a wonder this province still has any businesses that aren’t a Tim’s or McDonald’s. So many people complain about every single business trying to start up, yet are the first ones to complain when most jobs only pay minimum wage in 1 1/2 hour radius of the city lol. If all you have a retail and restaurants how do you think the province will ever survive? God forbid we were a self sufficient province or anything.