Public consultations are ongoing following the formation of a water management program led by the provincial government. Growing Outcomes in Watersheds (GROW) is a new partnership with farmers to create ecological goods and

Chair of the Boyne-Morris Watershed Planning Group Doug Dobrowolski services on the agricultural landscape. It will aim to improve water retention, quality, drainage, management of watersheds, as well as protection for wetlands.

The chair of the Boyne-Morris Watershed Planning Group said he hopes this program will benefit the water storage issue in the Pembina Valley.

"We want to make sure there's going to be enough raw water storage through the Stephenfield dam and the Treherne dam to ensure there is enough potable water on dry years, so we have to think of drought and not just the wet years," said Doug Dobrowolski.

Additionally, he said it's important to improve the movement of water in the province so farmers located in areas of flat land can access it.

There are a number of things Cliff Greenfield, the manager of the Pembina Valley Conservation District, said he thinks could be refined, as well.

First, through GROW, he would like to work more closely with Swan Lake First Nation. Greenfield said since First Nation land is federally managed and conservation districts are provincially managed, it was difficult to get the two groups to work together in the past, but now with this new provincial program the opportunity is more tangible.

Secondly, Greenfield said he thinks funding for conservation districts could be enhanced.

Manager of the Pembina Valley Conservation District Cliff Greenfield"It's really tough, especially in regards to bringing on urban centres. Originally, the program was a rural program. Now we're realizing we need our urban partners as well to improve our watershed. Everybody's in it together and benefits from the work that's done, so we have to find ways to bring in the urban partners and have that work together fairly and funded appropriately," he said.

Consultation documents are available at www.gov.mb.ca/sd. Manitobans can submit comments to watershedconsult@gov.mb.ca or by mail until Oct. 6.


Related article: Manitoba Launches Consultations on Watershed Planning