WINNIPEG – Frustrated after having tens of thousands of acres under water for two months, farmers in western Manitoba have organized and taken stock of their losses.
And now, they’re asking the provincial government some tough questions about compensation, crop insurance, and how the Assiniboine River was managed this spring.
The group plans to “keep the pressure on the government to correct the mistakes that they made and commit themselves to giving us some compensation,” said Don Armitage, a farmer from Miniota and member of the Assiniboine Valley Producers Association.
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About 150 farmers are represented by the group, which surveyed everyone who farms in the basin to find out the extent of the damage. Last week, the group met with four government ministers to tell them what they found out:
- A total of 38,725 acres of agricultural land was affected in 11 municipalities stretching from Shellmouth to Brandon.
- Almost 25,000 acres is cropland, most of which won’t be planted this year.
- The approximate value of fertilizer and herbicide applied to this land last fall is $270,000.
- Also affected was another 8,000 acres of tame forage and 5,500 acres of native pasture.
- Some of the farmers have all their productive land in the valley. On average, producers have slightly more than half of their acres affected.
- None of the farmers bought optional flood insurance.
Since the Shellmouth Dam was built 16 years ago near where the river enters the province, farmers have never had such losses.
Pat Cochrane, who farms with her husband Stan near Oak Lake, said the evidence this year would seem to point to man-made causes. There was a lot less snow this year than in 1976.
“We accepted the flood (in 1976) because the evidence was here: We had snow. But we also had finished seeding by the fourth of June. So that’s where the big difference is,” Cochrane said. This year, they have about 1,000 acres still too wet to plant.
The group told the government that it has three main concerns: Farmers in the valley told the natural resources department to open the dam earlier to make room for runoff, but they were ignored. Drainage projects in Saskatchewan appear to be adding to spring runoff problems.
And, disaster assistance covers only uninsurable damages, and flood insurance is inadequate. The maximum coverage is $30 per acre, which would not have covered the cost of fall inputs on the land. Farmers have to insure all their acres for flooding, even if only part of their land is in the valley. And there is no insurance to cover loss of tame or native forage.
Politicians say don’t hold your breath.
Brian Pallister, the minister responsible for disaster assistance, said although he was impressed with the work the farmers had done, compensating them for acres that could have been insured would be unprecedented.
Seek alternate compensation
“I don’t want to raise false hopes for anyone in this situation,” Pallister said, adding that farmers should look into available compensation for uninsurable damage such as erosion and clean-up costs.
The chair of an advisory group to the minister of natural resources said that department officials have admitted that they could have let out water from the reservoir earlier. But even if they had, there still would have been extensive agricultural flooding.
“It’s a floodplain,” said Tim Ball. “If you live in a floodplain, you’re going to get flooded.”
Ball said the Assiniboine River Management Advisory Board was set up 16 months ago to made recommendations for long-term solutions for managing the river. The board, made up of people who live in the valley, will be giving an interim report to the minister at the end of June.
