SASKATOON – After 18 years of service to prairie farmers, Harry Hill, director-general of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, is retiring.
Hill spent more than 30 years working in water resource management and environmental planning. He saw dramatic changes to the PFRA including the early hydrology projects involving the South Saskatchewan River.
The late 1970s and the 1980s were especially challenging for the PFRA, said Hill. Drought affected most of the Prairies then and PFRA was central to drought assistance and soil erosion protection programs.
Hill said the latest challenges to the PFRA include forming partnerships with business. The new face of the federal service is one of “helping farmers and business along the path rather than directing the way.
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“The PFRA has changed from leading to assisting and is now moving into diversification areas. It is a very exciting time again here, but it is my time to retire,” said Hill.
He has no immediate plans, saying he’ll take what comes and make the most of it. “My farm background taught me to do the best with what I had to work with, whether that was teaching or being the director of PFRA, and it never let me down.”
Hill joined PFRA in 1956 and left for England in the early 1960s to pursue masters and doctorate degrees at Oxford. He worked as a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and later for the federal environment department. In 1977 he rejoined PFRA as director-general.
He is now the vice-president honoraire of the International Commission of Irrigation and Drainage.
“I am very optimistic about the future of prairie farming. There are some big changes facing our farmers with the loss of the Crow and a more open international marketplace but I think most of them will be positive.”
