Thank you.
I had a little map distributed to you that shows the United Counties of Prescott and Russell as well as Glengarry and the region a bit further west. Do you see the yellow line? That is the South Nation River. You will notice that the South Nation flows from south to north and empties into the Ottawa River.
I would like to tell you a bit about the history of drainage in my region.
When the land was first cleared, it was hard for people to work the land or plant grain. It was good clay soil, but it was so flat that it was hard to drain it. There was the Nation River, the streams that flow toward it, as well as the gullies, as we say in my region. Farmers then started digging ditches to drain their fields. They made channels. That kind of flat land was perfect for growing hay and the land stayed moist in the summer. The problem was that people could not go into the fields too early to plant corn or soy and, as soon as it got rainy in the fall, they could not harvest the corn in the fields.
In the 1970s, systematic drainage was introduced in our region. Municipal drains were built to drain the lands and let the water run off as it should. The drainage was marvellous. Farmers had drains every 50 to 60 feet.
Nowadays, some farmers have started installing drains every 25 feet so they can get into the fields earlier in the spring. If it is rainy in the fall, they can get into the fields sooner.
The problem we have had in the past few years, however, is the drought in July.
I will let my colleague talk about the new control system to keep water in the fields.