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OTTAWA: Fed up with U.S. delays in ending blockades of Canadian grain products, the federal government yesterday officially started fighting back.
For the first time, Canada has formally requested consultations under both NAFTA and the World Trade Organization to stop the border actions of states like South Dakota, which have targeted Canadian trucks carrying cattle, hogs and grain.
"The Americans are plainly offside," he said. "They can't muster a shred of justification.
The province is putting $250,000 towards an $8 million expansion of the Springhill Farms hog processing facility in Neepawa.
The money will be used for business planning and engineering costs.
The expansion, which involves building an 18,000 square foot addition, will allow the facility to increase its processing capability by 1,200 to 4,000 hogs a day. Up to 150 new jobs will be created as a result.
Currently 300 people are employed at the 80,000 square-foot plant.
NOTRE-DAME-DU-BON-CONSEIL, Que: Riot squad police officers joined forces with pig herders Tuesday to end a pork producer's protest that had blocked part of a major highway for five days.
The club-carrying cops and a handful of stick-wielding herders cleared out about 200 pigs that were hogging a kilometre-long section of the two east-bound lanes of Highway 20 midway between Montreal and Quebec City.
Police had warned the farmers early Tuesday they would move them and their livestock off the highway if they didn't leave.
Overproduction of pork worldwide and the economic crises in Asia and Russia have delivered a one-two punch to the chops of the producers, Pork prices have dropped to about $1.05 a kilogram from about $2 last year.
Martin Rice, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council, said the price collapse has hit all pork producers in the country.
Rice said Maritime pork producers have quietly gone to their governments for help but that Quebec farmers are making the biggest stink.
WINNIPEG: Low world wheat prices that are helping to fuel an angry border dispute between Canada and the United States dominated a meeting of farm leaders Tuesday at the offices of the Canadian Wheat Board.
"The marketplace is everywhere dealing a very bad hand to producers," said Nettie Wiebe, president of the National Farmers Union.
(Sun Staff) - Agri-business continues to grow in the Wheat City with the addition of a seed-testing facility.
20/20 Seed Labs Inc. located in Nisku, Alta., opened a new facility in Brandon earlier this month at 1150 Nineteenth St.
The company performs domestic and international seed testing, analyzing purity, germination and disease diagnostics.
Marie Greeniaus, co-owner and manager of the facility, said the company does tests for growers, producers and trade and will employ between three and eight people depending on the time of the year.
Greeniaus has 30 years experience and is a fully-accredited seed analyst
and registered seed technologist.
NEEPAWA: The local development corporation will be constructing a hog barn and interpretive centre that will provide visitors with a glimpse of how the swine industry works.
The Neepawa and Area Development Corporation will enable the public to see how a modern hog barn operates, and how it disposes of manure, says Ken Waddell, project manager.
The project will serve three purposes, he explained.
One objective is to make money by operating a commercially viable 2,000-pig finishing barn.
Another is to provide a facility where companies that serve the hog industry can showcase their equipment to potential customers.
And finally, he said, the project will educate the public about hog production. For instance, people who are curious about hog barn odours or the disposal of manure will be able to see -- or smell -- firsthand and then make a judgment on what it would be like to have a modern hog barn in their district.
TORONTO: Maple Leaf Foods is extending its offer for Schneider Corporation's shares, continuing a battle for control of the 108-year-old food processor which has been tied up in court.
Maple Leaf said Monday night it is extending the deadline for shares in the Kitchener, Ont.-based company until 12:01 a.m. ET, sat., Oct. 10, 1998.
The announcement last week that the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool will close 235 primary elevators by the turn of the century should be a surprise to no one.
The construction of large inland grain terminals in all three Prairie provinces was all the proof anyone needed that the grain handling business is in the midst of a shakedown.
Sask Pool is hardly alone. Country grain elevators will be to the next century what the horse and plow were to the 20th. The family farm is likely not far behind as some producers are forced to expand to improve economies of scale while others get out of the business -- either on their own volition or as a result of a push by creditors.
We repeat this message only because it may clue some people in on the reasons why the Manitoba government has taken such an active role in the promotion of increased hog production.
This isn't about greed, as many people have suggested. It is about survival.
It isn't about destruction of a way of life, as others have complained. It is about preserving it.
There is nothing particularly new about the trend that has seen farm size increase and farm population drop. It has been a fact of life since the end of the Second World War.
However, the issue has taken on a sense of urgency during the past two decades.
To their credit, the leaders of small communities have been trying to address this issue -- some with success.
However, the long-term survival of rural Manitoba is dependent on the creation of new wealth and new opportunities.
We recognize that any effort to enter hog production must be done with the environment in mind, especially when confronting issues such as odour and ground water.
However, those who would like to see the abandonment of the promotion of hog production refuse to acknowledge that there is no such thing as the status quo.
As we have said before, rural Manitobans have a choice. They can promote
the diversification of the agricultural sector or they better get used
to the fact that they, or their neighbours, may be forced to leave the
communities they cherish.
Manitoba's hog industry needs to recruit and train an additional 550 barn workers per year for the next five years if it hopes to keep up with growth in the industry, according to a new study.
The study, undertaken by Kelly Associates and David Shamrock and Associates, estimates there are approximately 1,450 barn workers employed in the province's pork production industry.
Randy Baldwin, one of the study's authors, said pork production in the province is expected to double over the next five years. (Manitoba now produces between 3.0 and 3.5 million market hogs per year).
The organization is comprised of individuals from all segments of our Brandon and Westman community.
We intend to monitor the development process of the Maple Leaf project and/or other such projects and satisfy ourselves, the best interests of the citizens are being considered, along with attempting to inform the various segments of our community about this project as it evolves. This is one of our major goals, to transmit information to enlighten people, to address and clarify the concerns about the Maple Leaf Project and the various impacts anticipated for Brandon and the surrounding areas.
To date, we are supportive of the procedures in place to carry the project forward. We believe the staging process for the project and the controls built into the process by the Manitoba Department of the Environment, City of Brandon, along with the opportunity for input by concerned citizens prior to the various stages for license approvals augers well for the assurances that citizens best interests will be protected.
We feel there presently is ample opportunity in the various levels of government to register and address valid concerns. The recent public meetings held at the Keystone Centre in May and July and City of Brandon Council discussions July 13th, demonstrate the design evaluation approval process is working well, and all players in the project: government, city and company (Maple Leaf), are progressing within the approval and development process.
Citizens for Responsible Growth continue conducting a membership drive in Brandon and surrounding Westman Area. Increased membership and communication will improve knowledge of the project.
Our next meeting: Wednesday, September 23, 1998 - 8:00-10:00 P.M. -
Victoria Inn, Brandon
Agenda: Maple Leaf Project update - Brandon City Police and Brandon
Regional Health Authority will discuss impacts of development and growth
in our community.
CRG Website: www.crgwestman.com
CRG Email: mail@crgwestman.com
CRG Media Contact: Don Partick - phone and fax: (204) 727 0493
UNITED NATIONS: Canada is still No. 1 in a global ranking of countries according to health, education, life expectancy and per capita income, but the UN has also spotlighted Canadian poverty.
It's the fifth consecutive year that Canada has come first in the human development index ranking 174 countries. Canada also ranks first in equality for women, in line with last year's top position.
A deafening explosion, followed by 30-foot high flames, rocked Brandon's
Simplot Canada plant shortly before noon Tuesday.
. . .
No one was injured in the incident, which plant manager Warren Gray
called "major."
. . .
The explosion happened in the hydrogen recovery building of a newly
installed ammonia plant. The $225-million facility had only been operational
since last Friday and now will be shut down indefinitely, Gray said.
"It will have a substantial effect on production...," he said. "It's (the new plant) has just been producing for about three days so we're really disappointed."
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE: A top executive with Maple Leaf Meats has agreed to drink water from a local homeowner's tap after the company's Brandon hog-slaughtering plant opens.
At a public information meeting Tuesday evening Peter Smith, vice-president
of engineering for Maple Leaf, accepted the challenge by a Portage resident
Joe Masi.
. . .
Masi, who moved to Portage recently, was among a handful of residents
who voiced serious concerns about the Maple Leaf plant and the impact it
could have on Portage, 125 kilometres downstream on the Assiniboine River.
BRANDON: Residents are adjusting to the reality that Maple Leaf's new hog plant could mean an influx of young people with little education, if wage cuts negotiated at the Winnipeg plant apply here.
City planners may also need to focus on trailer parks and apartment buildings that workers can afford to live in, rather than the single-family homes currently under construction, said Richard Rounds, director of the Rural Development Institute at Brandon University.
Non-trades workers at the Maple Leaf Meats plant in Winnipeg will earn
between $6.50 and $12 an hour after being forced into a contract Sunday
that drastically cut wages and eliminated 400 jobs. The company threatened
to close the aging plant if they did not accept the deal.
...
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE: Maple Leaf's new hog processing plant will be an economic boon for Brandon, but for some living downstream of its treated waste, it's viewed as anything but a blessing.
"I want you to make a commitment, right now...that I have nothing to worry about in terms of my water in Portage La Prairie," Joe Massey told officials from Maple Leaf and the City of Brandon during a meeting last night to outline the plant and its plans to handle waste.
Maple Leaf's $112-million plant is expected to open next summer with a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant operated by the city.
Before the plant opens, however, the city is seeking environmental approval
to dump partially treated sewage water into the Assiniboine River for four
months, starting in November, as it upgrades its existing wastewater treatment
plant and builds another one to handle waste from the new plant.
. . .
Brandon officials believe Portage's water treatment plant can easily
handle the contaminated water once it reaches there.
But Portage Mayor Glenn Carlson said the city has concerns about its ability to treat increased amounts of nutrients, which increase algae growth, after receiving a consultant's report earlier this week.
Another day, another hog battle.
During the last five years, dozens of communities across southern Manitoba have erupted in nasty conflicts over proposals for intensive hog barns. the large-scale operations, which may house thousands of animals, have turned neighbour against neighbour in places where co-operation has been recognized as the key to survival for a century.
Last year, the value of Manitoba hogs -- more than $500 million -- surpassed the value of wheat for the first time in history. While some parts of eastern Manitoba are nearing swine saturation, the industry is poised to expand in western manitoba to supply Maple Leaf Meats' new processing plant in Brandon.
Is there a way for the province to achieve hog peace before the next growth spurt, instead of plunging into another five years of rural turmoil?
Promoters, who say hog producers are at least as good at looking after the land as other farmers, believe public education is the key.
"When change occurs, people get pushed out of their comfort zone," said Guy Baudry, who is opening a Brandon office for the pork-management company Elite Swine.
With the elimination of grain transportation subsidies, he said, some communities recognize their survival depends on finding local uses for grain. Feeding grain to pigs and using the manure to fertilize fields could be the perfect solution.
The public is yet to be convinced. According to an Environics survey this spring, rural Manitobans are almost equally divided between supporters and opponents of a major increase in hog farming. The proportion who consider hog farming worse for the environment than any other type of farming has jumped since 1997.
The new operations -- called "pig factories" by critics -- are a far cry from livestock barns of a few decades ago. The sophisticated projects are big business, often involving a group of local investors who team up with a management company. The barns generate large volumes of strong-smelling liquid waste when manure is washed out from under pens.
Agriculture Minister Harry Enns does not dismiss the concerns of rural residents who worry the manure will pollute their water, soil and air. "I understand why people are nervous," he said.
Enns has visited Holland and Taiwan, where livestock farming has created an environmental crisis. He said Manitoba has a much bigger land base, with far fewer hogs.
"We are not repeating the mistakes," he said. "We probably have the most stringent regulations with respect to manure management anywhere in the world right now."
Environmentalists, meanwhile, point to numerous regulatory gaps. Existing operations, for example, are allowed to spread manure on frozen ground until 2003, a practice that could allow waterways to be polluted by spring runoff.
Manitoba Agriculture's farm practices guidelines are also inconsistently applied. Rural municipalities have the right to demand that new barns follow the guidelines, but they also have the right to ignore the recommendations or set their own conditions.
Where provincial regulations do exist, hog-barn critics believe Manitoba Environment lacks the staff to adequately enforce them.
Enns acknowledges it's time to get more aggressive with enforcement, but he also has another idea up his sleeve.
This fall, Enns will push his cabinet colleagues for enough money to measure water quality in Manitoba's agricultural regions. "It's my intention to bring in regulations that will call for mandatory water sampling."
Science must replace emotion in the debate over whether hog barns are hurting the environment, he said. "I'd like to be able to come back five years from now and take a sample of water and put that against a sample that was taken in 1998 and be able to say with some confidence... there has been no degradation of the water supply."
By that time, it may be too late, people living close t hog barns argue. Lavonne Garnett of Carberry said the costs to the town would be enormous if the Assiniboine delta aquifer was ever contaminated. Water would have to be treated and piped to home, while farmers would need to get their water trucked in. "It's too risky to take a chance," she said.
Winnipeg environmental consultant Harold Taylor said dumping of carcasses and leaky manure storage facilities have been the main hog-related problems encountered so far in Manitoba.
Dennis Brown, Manitoba Environment's director for the Eastern-Interlake region, said inspections reveal about five per cent of livestock operators are not in compliance with all regulations.
"We have had no major problems with any of the existing operations," he said. "There are always minor problems. There are some people who try to cut corners all the time -- it doesn't matter what regulation you're dealing with."
Some rural residents are convinced their water has been contaminated, said Taylor, but it's hard to prove.
In the meantime, regulations on mandatory soil testing kick in next year. Soil monitoring is designed to detect nitrogen buildup from over-application of manure so that it can be corrected before nearby waterways are affected.
A Winnipeg entrepreneur can hardly wait for the regulations to become stricter. Peter Green, president of Canwest Tanks and Ecological systems, wants to sell farmers on innovations such as drying hog manure, then exporting it as fertilizer or burning it to produce electricity and heat.
He said some farmers could recoup their investment in the new technology within three to five years, at the same time avoiding upsetting neighbours by spreading smelly manure.
But Green said hog farmers will not bother exploring new ideas until Manitoba Environment puts its foot down.
Many complaints about hog farms come down to odour, said Enns. He has challenged researchers to find a way to get rid of the stink, whether through food additives or putting enzymes in manure tanks. "I want ot be driving with my wife Eleanor on a humid summer day ... and drive by one of these hog operations and I want Eleanor to ask me 'Is that a raspberry jam plant?'"
Maple Leaf officials expect current hog production to support a single shift at the new plant, creating more than 1,000 jobs next summer. Within three years, they hope expansion of hog farms in western Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan will allow them to operate a second shift.
* In 1996, 107 Manitoba farms had more than 4,700 hogs. Barns this large now account for about half the hog production in the province.
* A provincial report recommended doubling 1994 production to 5 million hogs by the year 2000. Growth is almost on target -- at current growth rates, 4.5 million hogs will be produced in 2000.
BENEFITS:
* jobs in rural communities
* local market for grain
* organic fertilizer and
* pigs raised in clean, climate-controlled facilities
DOWNSIDES:
* risk of water pollution and disease spread, odour,
* low price and declining Asian demand
* pigs confined indoors in small pens
REGULATION:
Municipalities:
* may have a "conditional use" process allowing council to hold a public
hearing, then reject a project or set conditions. Council may ask for non-binding
advice from a technical review committee of provincial government experts.
Manitoba Environment:
* offers technical advice to municipalities;
* issues permits for manure storage
* bans manure spreading in winter, except for existing operations,
which have until 2003 to comply; and
* will require manure management plans next year, including soil testing.
Manitoba Agriculture:
* offers technical advice to municipalities;
* publishes farm practices guidelines.
Manitoba Farm Practices Protection Board:
* hears complaints about nuisance odours and may order hog producers
to change their practices.
HOG PLANT ALLOWED TO SKIP HEARING
Environmental concerns may be heard at licence stage: McCrae
Winnipeg Free Press - September 11, 1998
by Helen Fallding (Regional Reporter)
BRANDON: The Clean Environment Commission will not hold a hearing on the construction of Maple Leaf Meats' $112 million hog plant, set to open here next summer.
Environment Minister Jim McCrae announced yesterday he will stand by his officials' June decision that a formal hearing is not necessary at this stage of the development. A hearing could still be called once Maple Leaf submits its application for a licence to operate the plant.
"The operating (licence) is obviously where the heavy-duty environmental concerns are going to be addressed," McCrae said in an interview.
The construction licence issued in June includes provisions designed to protect groundwater and rare plants that may be found at the site. Maple Leaf has been moving ahead full speed since then and walls are already going up at the site east of Brandon.
A separate licence for a wastewater treatment plant, to be built by the city, is being reviewed by Manitoba Environment, with public comments accepted until Sept. 18.
Bill Turnock, who chairs McCrae's advisory council, said it's a shame the minister did not listen to members' advice to call a hearing on the entire project, instead of reviewing piece by piece. Before deciding how large the plant should be, Manitobans need to know how much intensive hog farming the province can sustain without harming groundwater, he said.
NDP environmental critic Greg Dewar called the decision a breach of Manitoba's new Sustainable Development Act, which he said was supposed to do away with the piecemeal approach to reviewing projects. A CEC hearing should have been called shortly after the project was first announced in December, he said.
But McCrae said there's a danger in concentrating on the big picture. "If you do that you run a risk of maybe glossing over the detail, where the devil sometimes is found."
Reg Helwer, president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, said he would have been surprised if McCrae did not back his officials. Many people in Brandon are satisfied that Manitoba Environment is doing a good job monitoring the project, he said.
Mayor Reg Atkinson said the city is holding public meetings next week in Portage La Prairie and Brandon, where citizens can get their questions answered, "We have nothing to hide," he said. "I just didn't want unnecessary delays."
A spokeswoman for the Western Community Action Coalition said she is disappointed with McCrae's decision. Janet Brady challenged the minister to show up at the public meeting in Brandon to explain his decision to citizens.
At Brandon's Shoppers Mall yesterday afternoon, environmental hearings were not on many people's minds. While some shoppers have been following the debate in the newspaper, most said they do not have time to attend public meetings.
BRANDON: It sounds like an airplane arming up for takeoff, but it's not leaving just yet.
Officials at the Simplot fertilizer plant on Brandon's east side apologized yesterday for the noise that has kept some neighbours awake at night the last few months.
Plant manager Warren Gray explained the company must vent steam and pressurized gas during start-up of its new ammonia plant. Silencers on some of the vents were improperly designed, he said, and engineers will try to reduce the noise.
"Simplot is well aware the noise from the plant is excessive. It's an irritation to our neighbours," he said.
The plant also occasionally emits a loud popping noise when relief valves open to protect pipes from too much pressure.
Green Acres Coun. Don Jessiman said he has heard dozens of complaints, but some of Simplot's neighbours don't know what all the fuss is about.
Violet Thorleifson lives closer to the plant than just about anyone. "We know that they're working on the plant," she said. "We just put up with it."
A study that will likely be released next month could be crucial to the future of an effort to revive the former Burns Meats beef slaughtering plant.
James Bezan, president of IBG Global Meats, says the study by a Winnipeg consultant will determine the feasibility of producing specialty products, primarily for an ethnic market in the United States.
IBG has been forced to readjust its plans because of the collapse of the Asian market, which initially had been a key part of the plant ot re-open the Brandon plant.
The financial crisis in Asia and the failure of the market in the Middle East to materialize has forced IBG to switch its focus to North America. Two possible target markets are sales in the U.S. to Jewish and Muslim communities, Bezan said Wednesday.
IBG is looking for niche markets, ones not served by the major beef packing companies in North America. A small operation can't afford to compete head-on with these companies for markets or slaughter cattle, Bezan said.
"Whatever we do in the packing industry, we have to realize there are three giants," he said. "If we get in their way, they will not just be stepping on our toes, they will be stepping on us.
"...They could easily beat us up on a weekend, much less a year."
He said the ethnic market is an option, because the large packers aren't interested in it. Products such as Kosher meat must be slaughtered according to specific rituals. Large packers don't produce these products because these rituals slow assembly line processing.
IBG Global is a subsidiary of IBG Inc., which is owned by 25 Manitoba cattle producers. It is involved in the export of beef as well as genetic materials including semen and embryos, Bezan said.
There is an uncertain future for a producer-owned beef-packing co-operative, which had once considered Brandon as a site for a slaughtering plant.
Interest in the co-operative among producers has
dropped off, especially in Manitoba where interest fell substantially since
it was decided the co-operative wouldn't be locating in this province,
says Ryan Taylor, communications director for Northern Plains Premium Beef
Co-operative.
One of two public information meetings next week on the Maple Leaf Meats hog processing plant and related developments in Brandon will take place in Portage La Prairie.
Robyn Singleton, the City of Brandon's Maple Leaf project co-ordinator, said company officials, Manitoba Environment representatives and consultants hired by the city will be on hand to discuss all facets of the project.
"We will do basically everything that we've done during the meetings
in Brandon," he said on Wednesday.
...
A family-run Dutch company has chosen Brandon for a new plant to manufacture livestock ventilation equipment -- piggy-backing on the area's booming hog industry.
The company expects to employ up to 25 people within five years.
Installatie Techniek Boxmeer BV, (ITB) has sent written confirmation to Brandon Mayor Reg Atkinson of its intentions to build a $1-million plant to manufacture systems used in hog barns, poultry houses, greenhouses and utility construction. But the company has yet to purchase or take options on any land, according to Brandon Economic Development Board chairman Jim Green.
It could be November before the city receives a go-ahead commitment.
The facility would employ three to four people initially, with the potential for 25 people within five years.
"ITB hs indicated they are very interested in Brandon. They feel an increasing market here in Western Canada and became aware of Brandon after Maple Leaf announced their Brandon intentions," Green said.
"But it's between them and a real estate developer to find a buying and selling arrangement. From an economic development board standpoint, there's not much more we can do."
Last January, Maple Leaf announced plans for a $112-million hog processing plant which is to open next summer.
Atkinson said he fully expects the deal to come through.
"ITB wants to have a central North American location. It came down to Winnipeg and Brandon. We wined and dined them and they chose us," he said.
VIRDEN: This community is hoping its location will provide it with an advantage in its effort to secure a bison-processing plant.
North American Bison Co-operative, which currently operates a plant
in North Dakota, is looking to build a second facility somewhere in Western
Canada.
Dick Fish, chairman of the site selection committee, says that in later
fall or early winter the committee will select a province for the plant.
Later, after it settles on a province, it will pick a community.
Many of the details about the plant haven't been determined, but the
facility will likely cost in the range of $5 million to $10 million, Fish
said Thursday.
...
Manitoba could have an edge over Saskatchewan because of the favourable
business climate and lower taxes in this province, as well as transportation
systems including the Winnipeg airport, he said.
Virden is on the Trans-Canada Highway, but it is also close to Saskatchewan and production in that province, he said.
The $112-million hog-processing plant that Maple Leaf Foods is building
in Brandon could also help Virden's bid. A bison plant could benefit from
having rendering facilities nearby as well as such things as cardboard
box and packing supplies, he said.
About 800 Maple Leaf Meats workers in Winnipeg are slated to vote tomorrow on a make-or-break collective agreement that's expected to include deep wage cuts -- and the prospect of having no jobs at all if they reject the new terms.
In a letter to employees, Pat Jones, a vice-president at the firm's Burlington, Ont. office, said the Winniipeg plant "has no future as it currently operates...is not competitive and will not continue in its present form."
The letter says a new plant will be built in Winnipeg -- but only if
the workers accept the new contract and lower wages that would put the
operation on a more competitive footing with other plants in North America.
[He said the current base rate of pay in Winnipeg is $16.77 an hour.]
The Prairies region finalists for Canada'a entrepreneur of the year awards were announced last night at a banquet.
[The three finalists included Brandon's:]
Stuart Craig, chairman and chief executive officer of Craig Broadcast
Systems, Inc. Craig Broadcasting, with 580 employees, is the largest privately
owned broadcasting company in Canada, with television and radio stations
in Winnipeg, Portage La Prairie, Brandon, Regina, Edmonton, and Calgary.
As well, the company owns SkyCable Inc., the world's first and largest
digital wireless cable network, covering an area of about 58,000 square
miles.
Manitoba Environment will issue a licence next week so the city can begin a much-needed upgrade to its sewage treatment plant.
Larry Strachan, the province's director of environmental approvals, said on Tuesday the review of the city's application is in its final stages.
"We're in the process of drafting a licence for the correction of the hydraulic deficiencies in the plant necessitating the bypass of sewage to the lagoon system.," Strachan said in a telephone interview from Winnipeg.
Strachan said there was one request made for a public hearing to be
held into the application, but that hte decision was made to grant the
licence without one because of the project's short time frame.
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WCNN DIRECTORY