Years of lobbying the Manitoba government for help in coping with spring flooding have paid off, according to Stan Cochrane, chair of the Assiniboine Valley Producers’ Committee.
Provincial agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk recently announced a $2.39 million one-time assistance package for producers with land downstream from the Shellmouth dam, which extends from near Russell, Man., to Brandon.
“It’s a lot more than we ever got before, which was nothing,” said Cochrane. “We’ve been working on it since the flood in 1995.”
He said that for years farmers have been paying the price in lost crops and flooded pasture because the decision to open or close the dam was made mainly to serve the interests of nonagricultural users.
Read Also
Extreme rain increases as planet warms
In this issue, we are going to wrap up our look at extreme rainfall by examining the different weather patterns that tend to be associated with these rainfall events.
“If they adjust the water levels so that there is always lots of water in the dam and it affects us, it shouldn’t be our financial burden,” he said.
Wowchuk said that the money would directly benefit producers who experienced financial losses due to unusual and excessive flooding of their agricultural land during the 2005 and 2006 crop seasons.
“This assistance package will complement the existing produc-tion insurance and excess moisture insurance payments that were available to landowners,” said Wowchuk.
The assistance package is to be administered by the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. An ongoing, proactive program will be developed in consultation with producers to address future flood impacts should they occur, she said.
Last year, Cochrane estimated that 19,000 acres belonging to at least 100 farmers were flooded along the Assiniboine River. The compensation would likely be distributed using old crop insurance data, he added.
“Valley land is very good, productive land,” he said. “So when it gets flooded, it’s quite an economic blow.”
