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Strategy for water mitigation policy under development
By Alan Hustak
Grasslands News
Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency is working on a strategy designed to support Saskatchewan’s agriculture industry and at the same time manage the environment and its water resources. Its Agricultural Water Management Strategy is expected to be made public next year, and will be incorporated into the government’s comprehensive wetlands policy that is expected to be announced in 2024.
“This is the first time in three and a half decades that a mitigation strategy has been planned and developed in Saskatchewan. No other government has attempted to create a made in Saskatchewan solution that ensures stakeholder interests and perspectives are heard and considered,” a spokesman for the WSA informed Grasslands News in response to a story carried last week about the condition of the water in the Qu’Appelle Lakes.
“The Water Security Agency initiated a comprehensive and ongoing engagement process with a broad range of stakeholders which will inform a broader Saskatchewan wetland policy. WSA is committed to developing a comprehensive mitigation policy that is effective, practical, and acceptable to Saskatchewan producers.”
Any report will not only have to satisfy producers, but, says Dr. Peter Leavitt, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change and Society at the University of Regina, will have to address scientific, social and political concerns. “There is a lot of noise coming out of the Saskatchewan government about consultation, but virtually none has been concluded unless it is referring solely to conversations with producers who intend on using the irrigation water. Certainly none of the concerned First Nations have been consulted in a meaningful way nor have any of the academic groups been engaged to my knowledge,” Leavitt told Grasslands News. “This is the first time I have heard of a comprehensive strategy. ‘Made in Saskatchewan’ seems to be a code word for ‘without input from other agency or expertise outside of the Saskatchewan government’s civil service. The made in Saskatchewan climate plan has been singularly ineffective, so I have little faith that a wetlands policy embedded in an agricultural focus will be effective. While there may be an honest desire to change things, the track record and the current narrative with the federal government is so adversarial I am not optimistic that this will be a meaningful step forward.”
The Provincial Association of Resort communities of Saskatchewan has been trying for years to get answers from the ministry about the health of lakes in the province. Board member Linda Anweiler who has a cottage at Melville Beach says she’s concerned about “illegal drainage, pollution, toxin levels and natural erosion that is affecting Crooked Lake. The habitat that normally would be here isn’t any more. Of course we are concerned,” she says.
The Association has assembled a panel of environmental and provincial government experts who are expected to discuss water security on Friday, Oct. 14,
Registration for the online convention is https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2324093128812486413
Anyone is welcome to join.
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