A $100 million channel designed to reduce record water levels on Lake Manitoba is nearly finished, but many ranchers and residents with property around the lake remain frustrated.
They want the province to build a second outlet at the north end of the lake.
“The feeling in the country, by the people affected by the high lake levels, is that they’d like to see the province dig another canal from Lake Manitoba across to Lake Winnipeg,” said Tim Clarke, a cattle producer from Ashern who also works for Manitoba Agriculture.
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“People want to see a permanent (solution) for preventing this type of disaster.”
Contractors began excavating an eight-kilometre-long channel in July to drain Lake St. Martin between Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg. Once the channel is complete, likely in November, it will be used to lower water levels in Lake St. Martin.
The province will also run the Fairford Control Structure at full capacity over the winter to reduce water levels in Lake Manitoba. It is an outlet at the north end of Lake Manitoba that drains into Lake St. Martin.
The provincial government authorized the $100 million project because water levels in Lake Manitoba exceeded 817 feet above sea level this summer, nearly five feet higher than the maximum regulated levels for the lake. The topography around Lake Manitoba is particularly flat, so many pastures, hay land, homes and yards have been flooded since May.
“Even though Lake Manitoba is only up five feet in some places, it (water) is backed up two or three miles onto land,” said Clarke. “It will be a matter of time before some of those areas get dry enough to try farming again.”
Flooded pastures and hay land forced many cattle producers with land adjacent to the lake to move livestock to higher ground or relocate animals.
Producers, cottage owners and other residents don’t want to see another year like 2011 and have asked the government to dig a second channel to drain Lake Manitoba.
The provincial government asked two engineering firms earlier this year to consider options for draining Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin. They recommended digging the channel to drain Lake St. Martin.
Once that was complete, they said, the province should consider a $60 million channel that bypasses the Fairford Dam and drains water from Lake Manitoba into Lake St. Martin.
Brian Sigfusson, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Coldwell, said he thinks the province intends to construct the second channel.
“It’s going to proceed, I haven’t been told any different,” said Sigfusson, who sits on the Lake Manitoba Flood Rehabilitation Committee, a group of concerned landowners and municipal politicians in the region.
The provincial government didn’t mention the second channel in its Oct. 20 throne speech, but agriculture minister Stan Struthers said it does plan to follow through on the engineers’ recommendations.
“Our commitment has been to make every effort to bring down the levels of the lakes that are being impacted,” he said.
