The floodwaters dissipated long ago but the havoc caused by excessive summer rains in Manitoba is far from being water under the bridge, according to the provincial pulse grower group.
Culverts are plugged, ditches need to be dredged and there has to be an all-out effort to repair the entire drainage network, but nothing is happening, said Don Sissons, past-president of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association.
“It’s just ridiculous to see the amount of work that has to be done after these rain events and our provincial government is just twiddling their thumbs and walking away from potential disaster aid from the federal government.”
Read Also
Land crash warning rejected
A technical analyst believes that Saskatchewan land values could be due for a correction, but land owners and FCC say supply/demand fundamentals drive land prices – not mathematical models
Representatives of the association met with federal cabinet minister and Manitoba Liberal MP Reg Alcock earlier this month to discuss what could be done.
Alcock told them federal dollars are there for the taking through Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada’s disaster program, but it is up to the province to design, develop and deliver the assistance.
Don Norquay, assistant deputy minister of Manitoba Water Stewardship, said the province is doing everything it can to repair the drainage infrastructure, including attempting to access federal disaster dollars.
“We will seek that money to the extent it is available. We will definitely be advancing the claim,” he said.
First the province must assess the extent of the damage and prove it is eligible to receive the federal funding.
On another front, the department has requested a substantial boost in its drainage budget for next spring’s construction season, a request that has yet to be approved by the provincial legislature.
“We’ve seen what has happened out there on the landscape this summer and acknowledge that there is a substantial unmet need,” said Norquay.
Meanwhile, his department has been doing what it can to restore the rain ravaged network. But those efforts have been hampered by poor weather.
“We’re working full bore with the resources we have to do as much as possible before the end of the season,” he said.
Those are empty words for people like Lincoln Wolfe who lost his entire 2,700 acre bean crop near MacGregor, Man., when heavy rains had nowhere to go.
“It backed up because the municipal drainage infrastructure just couldn’t handle the amount of water that was coming. It just backed up onto our property,” said the president of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association.
Wolfe hasn’t seen any action from the province. Within five or six weeks the ground will be frozen, and only a small amount of the silt-laden and washed-out waterways have been repaired. He worries he will be facing flooding problems come spring thaw.
Sissons can’t understand why the province seemingly prefers to pay out expensive crop insurance claims on high value special crops like beans rather than fixing the drainage problem once and for all.
But Norquay insisted there is a plan of attack.
In addition to seeking disaster aid and a bigger budget to address the short-term issue of repair of existing infrastructure, he said the province is working with the federal government on a long-term strategy for drainage and many other water management issues.
