After years of stalled development and funding droughts, Saskatchewan irrigators are eying hopeful signs on the horizon.
The Canada-Saskatchewan Water Supply Expansion Program, announced in May, will make $12.5 million available over the next two years to plan and develop agricultural water projects. The Saskatchewan government will contribute an additional $7.5 million of in-kind support.
That represents the first funding since 1996, said Greg Stranden, secretary of the South Saskatchewan River Irrigation District 1.
“It’s significant that the government is taking an interest again in irrigation, but dollar-wise, when you start spreading it over the province, it’s not a lot.”
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There are three levels of projects eligible for assistance, said Gloria Parisien of Saskatchewan Agriculture.
Tier 1 is for on-farm water infrastructure programs such as wells and dugouts, with the government contributing up to $5,000 per project and $15,000 per applicant.
Tier 2 is for multi-user infrastructure projects for irrigation districts providing regional pipelines, with a third of eligible costs covered by the federal government.
Tier 3 projects are for regional ground water studies, feasibility studies and water supply planning, provided on a cost-shared basis.
The funding will help rural communities and irrigators plan water projects, said Stranden, who hopes there will be more funding available in future years.
He said people are starting to see the benefits of irrigation and not just the costs. While successive years of drought hurt many farms and communities, Outlook weathered those bad years better than most due to the amount of irrigation in the area, said Stranden.
Irrigation has driven secondary processing and brought young people into the community.
“It makes you feel better; it gives you a better attitude,” he said.
Doug Ball, chair of the West Side Irrigation Steering Committee, said his group will use the funds to complete a business plan and feasibility study for an area extending from the Gardiner Dam north to Perdue, Sask.
He envisions up to 450,000 irrigated acres within the region, which would make it the largest irrigation project in the country.
“It would drought proof a major part of west-central Saskatchewan,” he said.
The Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association plans to submit an application on behalf of all irrigators in the province.
“Any money is welcome and would be well used,” said association president Roger Pederson.
He said the group wants to keep funding doors open for the program, announced before the federal election.
“Our worry is that there are fellows who don’t know about it,” he said, citing deadlines throughout the summer for Tier 1 and 2 projects.
Pederson, who grows a mixed bag of crops from seed potatoes to canola, hopes the water supply expansion program will spur Saskatchewan Agriculture to undertake a province-wide review of irrigation development. It stalled when programs and funding ran out, but continues at a rate of up to 3,000 new irrigated acres each year.
Pederson wants to ratchet that up 10-fold, and hopes the funding will lead to an ongoing, long-term program.
He said irrigation is a good investment that creates value-added industries, improves farmers’ profitability and benefits the community.
“Once industry sees development, it will snowball,” he said.
