Irrigators from across the province have gathered online this week.

Beginning yesterday, the 25th annual Irrigation Saskatchewan Conference began, and the hot topic seemed to focus on the provincial government's plan to expand Saskatchewan's irrigation network by 500 thousand acres through a $4 billion dollar Lake Diefenbaker project that had been announced earlier in the summer.

Lyle Stewart, the Legislative Secretary to the Minister responsible for the Water Security Agency, recorded a video presentation for the conference, discussing both the project itself and the government's goals to double the amount of irrigable land in the province.

Stewart added that the timing for the expansion of irrigation in the province is right.

The project, which would occur in three phases over ten years, is expected to create 2,500 construction jobs per year and, according to the provincial government's estimates, result in $40 to $80 billion dollars being added to the provincial GDP over the next half-century.

 

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash