The Manitoba government has announced a multimillion-dollar compensation package to help farmers and residents affected by near record water levels on Lake Manitoba this spring.
However, producer Jonas Johnson says the compensation plan ignores the central issue that for years the province has deliberately dumped water into Lake Manitoba, sacrificing farmers to save the citizens of Winnipeg.
Johnson, who grows hay on his farm east of Langruth, Man., said he’s lost an estimated $250,000 in revenue over the years because artificially high water levels have flooded his hay land adjacent to Lake Manitoba.
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The province has diverted 25,000 to 33,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Assiniboine River into Lake Manitoba since April to prevent the flooding of agricultural land and property downstream of Portage la Prairie.
However, the lake’s main outlet at Fairford can release only 10,000 to 14,000 cubic feet per second of water, which partially explains why the lake reached 815.23 feet above sea level in late May, nearly three feet higher than the maximum regulated level for Lake Manitoba.
Consequently, the lake has moved 1 1/2 kilometres from its typical shoreline near Johnson’s farm, flooding his hay land and threatening his farmyard.
“We currently have the entire yard (surrounded) with a five-foot ring dike,” he said. “ (And) we’re missing basically 1,000 acres that was once usable.”
The provincial government has promised to compensate farmers around the lake for damages to forage land, lost hay production and transportation of livestock to other pastures.
However, Johnson said it doesn’t help him much because his land is now worthless.
“I can’t retire now because they’ve rendered my property useless. That was my pension plan,” he said.
What’s most frustrating for Johnson is that the government won’t admit that the diverted water artificially raised levels in the lake. He said provincial politicians maintain that the high water levels are explained by natural run-off this spring.
“Those guys do not want to admit that the province is flooding Lake Manitoba purposely to save Winnipeg.”
Johnson organized a meeting that was scheduled for June 1 in Langruth to find solutions for water levels on the lake.
He said May 30 that he expected 200 to 300 farmers, politicians and citizens to attend the meeting, including Brian Sigfusson, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Coldwell, which surrounds the town of Lundar on the east side of the lake.
Sigfusson hopes the meeting focuses on long-term solutions for Lake Manitoba because buying out landowners around the lake will only weaken the rural economy.
“Along with buying those people out, they (the government) better come and buy the communities out because they’ll be gone too,” he said.
“Some people are saying that if it (the lake) isn’t fixed they’re quitting farming. Do you know what that does to the economy in our local communities?”
He wants the government to improve the Fairford Dam, the main outlet of Lake Manitoba. He also thinks the province should build a proper outlet for Lake St. Martin downstream of Fairford.
Johnson supports any plan that increases lake outflows, adding it’s easy to explain why lake levels are so high.
“Everybody knows that you can’t have a bathtub with a one-inch drain … when you put a four-inch hose into it.”
