WC134 JanFeb 2024 - Magazine - Page 38
H2OPINION
The Provincial Auditor has repeatedly criticized the WSA for
having no process for periodically reassessing watersheds in the
province. Meanwhile, there are indications that the WSA has disbanded the Watershed Stewardship Associations it initially created
to deliver source water protection programs19 Rather than funding
water protection and other elements of the public interest in water
and wetlands, the WSA has increased its support for Drainage
Associations, providing millions of dollars for drainage channel
clearing and cost share funding for engineering design and LiDAR
imagery for drainage projects.20 WSA has also directed financial
resources to the creation of what it calls “Qualified Persons”, independent contractors that farmers can hire to manage the development and licensing of their drainage projects.21
As the provincial auditor and others have pointed out, the
WSA and the Province of Saskatchewan have a poor record when
it comes to working with First Nations on water issues. In 2018,
Pasqua First Nation reached an out-of-court settlement with
the Saskatchewan government after taking it to court over its
lack of consultation and a decision to bypass the environmental
impact assessment process for a plan to divert salt water from
the flooded Quill Lakes to Last Mountain Lake.22 Heavy rains
following decades of illegal drainage in the region added seven
metres to lake levels in that terminal basin, flooding 90,000
acres. While WSA concluded the flooding was in part due to
illegal drainage,23 no drainages have been closed and the lake
remains flooded. WSA saying they aren’t closing illegal drainage
at the Flooded Quill Lakes.24
In 2022 WSA announced it would be developing a drainage
mitigation policy by 2024 and would spend over a million dollars commissioning independent reports to determine just how
many wetlands needed to be retained.25, 26, 27 For a moment, the
water and wetland conservation community thought the WSA
might be coming to its senses. Among other things, the reports
concluded that drainage levels above 30% will cause more harmful algae blooms and threaten Regina’s drinking water supply.
They also stated that eutrophication caused by phosphorus and
nitrogen is a significant issue in Saskatchewan, and that further
drainage will undo efforts to reduce the movement of nutrients to Lake Winnipeg. The reports made it clear that wetland
conservation is needed to achieve Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan,
Saskatchewan’s Game Management Plan, Climate Change Plan,
and Protected Areas Plan, and that loss of wetlands and other
natural habitats to expand crop production represent some of the
greatest environmental threats to biological diversity.
With all this information in hand and a drought that cost the
province almost 6 billion dollars in crop insurance payouts,28
the WSA has inconceivably and against all reason proposed that
Saskatchewan needs a drainage policy that will allow farmers to
drain 70 to 80% of Saskatchewan’s wetlands—an estimated additional 2.7 million acres! While policy makers and water managers
elsewhere are calling for wetlands to be conserved for the benefits
they provide and while markets are calling for more sustainably
produced food, it is hard to understand why Saskatchewan is
racing in the opposite direction to drain more and conserve less.
Any rational, independent examination of the Saskatchewan
Water Security Agency and its record would conclude that its
policies have been completely captured by short-term political
thinking that benefits a minority of rural landowners at the
expense of the long-term values of healthy landscapes and watersheds serving the whole community.
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WATER C AN ADA • JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2024
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
