Saskatchewan is investing more than $8.3 million dollars in Water Management Infrastructure and Programming.
The Minister for the Water Security Agency, Greg Ottenbreit says these are of course important infrastructure investments for our province, for the economy, and for agriculture.
"Two and a half million dollars is more for, I guess the recreational side of things with conveyance canal and pumping infrastructure at Pike Lake, which many would know is just outside of Saskatoon. There's another two and a half million dollars for the installation of traveling screens to capture and remove aquatic weeds in the one canal, which is an important piece of agriculture infrastructure up in that area of the world. We know that making sure that these canals are in good shape is very important, in order to protect the wildlife or the fish life in the canal. We have to have these screens in place to protect them as we're clearing the weeds out of these certain areas. So that's an important piece of maintenance, maintenance infrastructure for that project. There's a million and a half for advanced agriculture water management projects that deal with issues such as erosion control. There's $600,000 for Rural Municipalities, Conservation and Development Area authorities and Watershed Associations to clear natural channels of debris and sedimentation and general overgrowth which again is in maintaining those waterways that support our agriculture. There's a half-million dollars to municipalities to conduct flood mapping to support long term mitigation, and also $750,000 for upgrades to improved stop log handling systems for control structures at six different locations around the province."
He says it's important not only to get people working again, but also to invest in important infrastructure projects not just in the short term, but for many years to come.
Initial work on all projects is expected to begin immediately.
Ottenbreit notes that the Upper Qu'Appelle Irrigation District and some of the work that's been looked at up in the West Side Irrigation District are things that they are continuing to look at possibly advancing.
He adds in the last Growth Plan, they committed to expanding irrigation acres in the Province of at least 85,000 acres.
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