Rural Economic Development Will Dry Up Without Water

Summary

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Our water-supply policy framework in Manitoba is completely dysfunctional. It can take up to 20 years to secure an irrigation licence under our current system. Communities are being encouraged to compete against other communities for small infrastructure funding when the need is for a regional approach that will serve our needs for the next 100 years.

In southern Manitoba, we cannot even secure an engagement with provincial authorities about how to create a regional water-supply system that will enable our communities to grow and develop in the future. After several years of work, it appears that south-central and southwestern Manitoba have been red-lined in terms of investment in this critical infrastructure development.

If rural people do not get involved with the process of determining water-supply policies, we may very well experience the situation that is occurring in Australia where rural communities are being shut down upon federal government actions. Is that an outcome that we want to experience here in Manitoba?

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Extract

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Rural Economic Development Will Dry Up Without Water

Governments here on the Prairies need to wake out of their slumber and prevent water-supply issues from reaching crisis levels, as has happened in Australia and other regions of the world.

In Australia, farms and dams are...

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