WC134 JanFeb 2024 - Magazine - Page 37
Wetlands are disappearing in Saskatchewan’s prairie
pothole region, highlighting the urgent need for
conservation and sustainable land management.
Water management is a provincial responsibility and although
landowners have water rights, they don’t have drainage rights.
Drainage is a privilege that has required an approval and license
since the 1980’s.3 Most of the drainage that has occurred and
continues to occur in Saskatchewan is happening without approval or regulatory enforcement.4
Regulatory challenges in water management
After years of record flooding, the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA) was created by combining several of the
Provincial water regulatory agencies into one, with the goal of
forming a one-stop-shop, arm’s length Crown water agency.5 The
WSA completed a 25 Year Water Strategy to identify and deal
with water issues not currently being addressed. Early on, the
agency stated that by 2015 it would develop a policy to retain
and restore wetlands. Unfortunately, that action, like many other
actions in the strategy, went unachieved6--something WSA has
been roundly criticized for by Indigenous7 and non-Indigenous
groups.
When it comes to legislation, WSA takes its authority from
the WSA Act. However, as many landowners have witnessed,
WSA frequently ignores its own legislation. For example, the
act states that all drainage must have a license, yet the majority
of wetland drainage is occurring illegally, unregulated and with
virtually no enforcement. WSA itself estimates that approximately 1.6 million to 2.4 million acres of farmland have unapproved
drainage works and that number continues to grow every year.8
As for new drainage proposed to the WSA, it regulations
say that the agency must consider impacts to water quality,
water quantity, and wildlife when approving a drainage plan9
Meanwhile, in the last few years, the WSA has licensed wetland drainage that amounts to an area thirteen times the size of
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
Regina, without stipulating the protection or conservation of any
wetlands within the approved drainage plans.10 Without proper
mitigation, these drainage projects have all destroyed green infrastructure, degraded water quality, erased wildlife habitat, and
released stored greenhouse gases.
Saskatchewan’s Provincial Auditor has repeatedly given the
WSA a failing grade when it comes to wetlands and drainage.11, 12
Since 2018, the Auditor has been critical of WSA, citing its lack
of effective processes to regulate drainage, its failure to consider
all aspects of watershed risk before approving applications for
drainage works, the need to formalize a process to periodically reassess watersheds in the province for risk of flooding, the absence
of policies on water quality and wetland requirements to use
when assessing risks of drainage works, and the need to actively
monitor for drainage violations. Rather than focus on monitoring and compliance, WSA relies on a drainage complaint system,
one that focuses more on who complains rather than whether or
not there are illegal drains13, 14, 15 There are hundreds of landowners with outstanding complaints that illegal drainage projects
have harmed their land and livelihood.16 Neighbours fighting one
another over water and drainage has contributed greatly to social
discord in some municipalities.
A path forward?
Back in 2006 the Province of Saskatchewan began Watershed
Planning and Source Water Protection following a provincial
inquiry into North Battleford’s water crisis, in which thousands
of people were incapacitated from contaminated drinking water.17 The provincial government responded with new “State of
the Watersheds” reporting to serve as the baseline for measuring
success in addressing threats to source water protection. However, only one baseline report was ever completed.18
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