The Saskatchewan and federal governments have opened up the funding taps again for three projects to expand the province’s irrigated land base by about 15,000 acres.
The two governments on Monday announced federal and provincial contributions of $810,000 and $90,000 respectively for projects in the South Saskatchewan River Irrigation District, Riverhurst Irrigation District and Luck Lake Irrigation District.
The added funding for these projects is to go toward hiring of engineering consultants to design the irrigation distribution works and contractors to install the pumps, pipelines and power lines, the governments said in a release. The individual irrigation districts are to oversee the purchase and installation of the works to service their respective projects.
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The added federal funding brings Ottawa’s contribution to $5.58 million, flowing through its Community Adjustment Fund, to the tune of $1.71 million each for the SSRID and Riverhurst Irrigation District projects and $2.16 million for the Luck Lake Irrigation District.
The province’s total contribution, meanwhile, rises to $190,000 each to the SSRID and Riverhurst District and $240,000 to the Luck Lake Irrigation District.
All three districts are in the Lake Diefenbaker Development Area, found within a triangle formed by the cities of Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Swift Current.
“Irrigation, water management, sustainability, rural development all comes hand in hand in our district,” SSRID vice-chair Greg Sommerfeld said in the governments’ release.
“Exceeded allotment”
“Challenge this with the cost of infrastructure and economic feasibility of expansion projects and you have what SSRID No. 1 has been faced with since receiving initial funding from (Western Economic Diversification Canada). This additional funding will assist us in adding new irrigation acres to our district; as well, it has reinforced the demand for continual expansion of irrigation acres.”
“We all know that if farmers are given one dollar they will spend two,” Riverhurst district chair Lorne Jackson said in the same release. “We are thankful the Community Adjustment Fund has provided more funding, as our plans exceeded the first allotment.”
“The increased funding will enable the district to complete construction of our infill initiative which will be completed by March 2011,” Luck Lake district vice-chair Randy Bergstrom added. “Construction of the project creates short-term jobs, and intensified irrigation creates long-term employment in the Lake Diefenbaker area.”
Irrigators’ crop rotations in the Lake Diefenbaker area have included crops such as potatoes, dry beans, timothy hay, corn silage, canola and alfalfa hay. Total irrigated acreage in the area currently runs around 101,000 acres, of which district irrigators manage just under 63,000.
Large-scale irrigation development in the region followed the 1967 construction of Saskatchewan’s Gardiner and Qu’Appelle Dams, which in turn formed the current Lake Diefenbaker reservoir.
Western Economic Diversification Canada is the delivery agency for Ottawa’s Community Adjustment Fund in the four western provinces. The fund is to provide $306 million over two years to support western communities that are “heavily reliant on resource-based industries” such as forestry, mining, agriculture and fisheries.
