Kenney: Province “studying” massive investments into Southern Alberta’s irrigation system

Jul 2, 2020 | 2:41 PM

TABER, AB – Southern Alberta’s irrigation system has been largely unchanged for over 60 years now, but that could change in the near future.

During his announcement of the twinning of a section of Highway 3 Thursday, Premier Jason Kenney also spoke about irrigation.

“In the Recovery Plan we released on Monday, a big focus on looking at potential major future investments in expanding Alberta’s irrigation system.”

He is in early discussions with the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to see if they would be interested in financing initiatives like this. They have a $30-billion fund for public-private partnerships.

Kenney, however, clarifies that nothing is official just yet, but believes it is critically important in continuing to grow and diversify the economy.

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“Those irrigation systems have been the backbone of the flourishing of the irrigation system in Southern Alberta into all sorts of value-added crops that’re now shipped around the globe.”

The region has seen more and more major players in the agri-food sector in recent years, such as Cavendish.

By pumping money into irrigation and highway infrastructure, the Premier believes that will continue.

If these investments were to happen, farmers would be able to utilize newer, higher-efficiency technologies that would save large amounts of water.

Across the province, 73,000 people are directly employed in agri-food industries, contributing $8.5-billion in Gross Domestic Product.

by David Opinko