1.204.673.2401 office@brendawaskada.ca

With the Covid-19 pandemic, ARD is having regular discussions with the departments of Conservation and Climate and Health, Seniors and Active Living.  One of our concerns is about health risks that could occur from reduced air quality from smoke due to crop residue burning.  Last week Manitoba released a media release on the importance of burning safely and preventing wildfires.  https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=47668&posted=2020-04-30

Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development is providing daily information  on smoke dispersion and wind direction to assist producers in making informed decisions about how to burn safely and minimize the risk of smoke.  We are posting the information on the Crop Residue Burning website that we use for the Controlled Crop Residue and Non Crop Herbage Regulation from August 1 to November 15th.  At this time of year (November 16th to July 31st), burning can occur from sunrise to sunset. Nighttime burning remains banned year-round.  However, how well smoke disperses into the upper atmosphere may not improve until later in the morning and may become poor before sunset.  On some days, smoke may not disperse well at any time during the day.  We provide recommended start and end times for burning as well as predicted wind direction and comments about how smoke should disperse.  We suggest which side of populated areas to avoid burning.  The information is also available at 1-800-265-1233 toll free or by calling 204-745-5646.

We will continue to issue the daily recommendations and provide information during the seeding period.  We will also work with other Government departments to monitor air quality throughout the spring.

If you have producers looking for information on the current regulations regarding burning, smoke dispersion or wind directions they can look for the daily information on the website or at 1-800-265-1233 toll free or by calling 204-745-5646.  Any information you can provide to encourage producers to burn safely and minimize smoke concerns would be greatly appreciated.

Crop Residue Burning Program
Agriculture and Resource Development
Government of Manitoba
Agri-Resource Branch
204-745-5646
cropresidueburning@gov.mb.ca
www.manitoba.ca
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