Irrigation groups planning merger

Members of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association (SIPA) are being asked to consider merger of two organizations serving irrigation. The merger would combine SIPA with the Irrigation Crop Diversification Corporation (ICDC).

SIPA provides advocacy and education on irrigation, while ICDC provides research.

The combined operation, to be known as the Irrigation Crop Diversification Corporation, could be rebranded as Irrigation Saskatchewan.

Purpose of the merger is to offer farmers a one-stop place for information and avoid confusion with the Canada Saskatchewan Irrigation Crop Diversification Centre at Outlook, which is a federal-provincial irrigation experimental farm.

SIPA and the ICDC involve duplication of administration with two boards of directors that causes some difficulty recruiting board members.

Two speakers on the proposal, Anthony Eliason of SIPA and Joel VanderSchaaf of ICDC, said they have identified $15,000 in savings from a merger. ICDC has been charged by the province with responsibility of collecting a $1 an acre irrigation levy from irrigators not in organized irrigation districts. No mechanism has been set up to collect the levy from private irrigators. Currently, the provincial government pays $100,000 a year in lieu of collecting the levy.

One irrigator noted they may not be able to collect all of the $100,000. While SIPA estimates about 100,000 acres of non-district irrigation, Statistics Canada data suggests 250,000 acres are in that category.

The merger can’t take place until 2019 while consultation takes place.