Improving water conservation vital for prairies, Goodale says

REGINA A new way for water conservation, development and management could “transform the face of Western Canada, and especially Saskatchewan,” according to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

During an address on Tuesday, Goodale discussed the possibility of an infrastructure project that would see the south end of Diefenbaker Lake connected to the Qu’appelle Valley. According to Goodale, that was part of the original vision for the lake that was never fully completed.

The project would provide greater flood proofing, safe and clean water flows, and “diversified water based economic and social growth.”

Additionally, the project would “eventually have much more secure, higher quality, better water flows down the Qu’appelle Valley,” which would serve agriculture, Indigenous communities, and the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw with larger water supplies.

But the project is still a long way off. This year’s federal budget provided a $1 million contribution to Western Economic Diversification Canada to fund the new strategy. According to Goodale, the project would require a financial commitment of around $1.5 billion between the federal and provincial governments.

Goodale said water is “always an issue in the Prairie region.

“And water is going to become more insecure as the consequences of climate change accelerate.”

“All of the science leads you to believe that it will be unpredictable. So that cycle of storm, drought, wildfire, is very debilitating on a province, on an economy. We’ve got to do something to get ahead of this very dangerous cycle of more unstable weather conditions — and part of that is managing water better.”