The Saskatchewan government is working on legislation to crack down on illegal drainage.
Ken Cheveldayoff, minister responsible for the Water Security Agency, said consultation will take place this summer and fall, online and through meetings with associations and individuals.
He said the number of complaints since the flooding of 2010 and 2011 has put a strain on the agency and its staff.
There were 364 complaints in 2011 and 2012, mostly neighbours complaining about neighbours.
Of those, 331 were resolved with the WSA acting as a mediator, although 12 could not be settled and resulted in orders for the works to be closed. Thirty-three complaints are still outstanding.
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Cheveldayoff said May 17 there are 81 active files. Many are requests for assistance and a dozen are formal complaints.
In response to questions from opposition critic Cathy Sproule during WSA budget estimates, the minister said dealing with illegal drainage is a priority for the WSA.
“Right now, we have very few tools at our disposal,” he said.
“We can investigate and order closure, but beyond that we don’t have a lot of tools.”
He said officials are looking at what other provinces do, particularly Manitoba, which faces some of the same challenges.
“What we’re looking at through legislation or the creation of legislation is the feasibility of administrative fines,” he said.
Enforcement is the difficult part of passing legislation. Cheveldayoff said it isn’t practical or financially possible to hire many more employees. Manitoba has hired 13 people, he added.
WSA staff had to be reassigned around the province to investigate after the most recent spate of complaints. The Yorkton area was a hot spot.
Cheveldayoff also said some people lobby him to allow more drainage, but they are the minority.
Drainage is permitted in cases where landowners have worked with the WSA and obtained the necessary permits.
There were resolutions both for and against drainage at the most recent Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention.
Sproule said the government should take a harder stance against people who drain without proper authority.
She said the previous minister had written letters to people asking them not to drain, and that likely didn’t work for people who chose to break the law.
“Certainly more teeth and a more forceful approach from the government is necessary to stop people from really causing havoc to their neighbours downstream,” she said.
Sproule said she looks forward to seeing the proposed legislation.
Cheveldayoff didn’t say when the legislation would be ready to be introduced.
“We want to just take our time to put a plan in place that frankly doesn’t cost the government a lot more money.”
He said flooding affected 18 million acres over two years, and the cost in lost production has been estimated at $4.4 billion.
