BROOKS, Alta. (Staff) — Farmers dependent on irrigation may lose some government money that supports the water system.
Jake Thiessen, assistant deputy minister responsible for water in the department of environmental protection, says $121 million must be cut from the budget by fiscal 1996-97. That could mean cuts in irrigation funding or charging user fees for water.
Thiessen holds no hope for a water tax after hearing public outcry in meetings with farmers this spring.
But the committee of MLAS also asked farmers to define the province’s role in funding irrigation infrastructure, and how the $16.6 million irrigation district rehabilitation endowment fund should be dispersed.
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Irrigated acres
About 1.2 million acres of the province are irrigated, with a cap of 1.7 million acres in total, said Thiessen.
There are 7,575 km of canals and pipelines, owned and operated by the irrigation districts, with the costs of upkeep coming partly from water rates paid by farmers. The province owns and operates the headworks systems that deliver water to the districts, and pays for that maintenance.
In 1976 the province started a plan to rehabilitate irrigation headworks, which include weirs, dams, reservoirs and major canals. It spent approximately $1 billion from the Heritage Savings Trust fund, but that source is about to dry up.
Rehabilitation costs were previously shared 86 percent by the province and 14 percent by the irrigators. Now the province wants to change the ratio and pay a 75 percent share.
