Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee for inviting us here today to speak about water management in Saskatchewan.
Canada is a water superpower. Across our great land—but especially in Saskatchewan and Manitoba—our water is the key to our prosperity. It sustains economies, turns aspirations to reality and helps communities reach their full potential. Ensuring a sustainable supply of water is crucial to the future growth and prosperity of the Prairies—be it in agriculture, manufacturing, energy or an array of other industries.
These are Minister Joly's words from “Prairie Prosperity: A Vision for the Management of Water Resources across Saskatchewan and the Prairies”, published in 2020. The report focused on the unrealized potential of irrigation at Lake Diefenbaker.
Creating a large and secure supply of water in the Prairies was discussed for many years in Saskatchewan. Discussions gained momentum following the crushing drought of the 1930s. The decision to proceed with the project was made in 1959, with construction completed in 1967. Lake Diefenbaker was formed by the construction of the Gardiner Dam and the Qu'Appelle River Dam. Lake Diefenbaker was envisioned to provide water for power generation, irrigation, drinking, and urban and industrial development. Today, it provides a significant supply of hydroelectric power, drinking water for nearly two-thirds of the province and water for urban and industrial development in the central area of Saskatchewan.
The irrigation potential of the lake, however, has never been fully realized. Pumphouses and canals were built during the construction of the project. Today, irrigation is operational on the east side of the lake. Unfortunately, in 1973, work was discontinued on the west side by the provincial government of the day when canal construction was already 90% completed. The west side project was never finished. Today, as a result, we see many kilometres of dry canal with concrete structures that have never been used. Lake Diefenbaker has the potential for up to half a million irrigation acres. We are now focused on building out irrigation infrastructure on the west side of Lake Diefenbaker.
The Lake Diefenbaker irrigation projects represent some of the most unique opportunities in Canada to deliver on food security, climate resiliency and economic growth. Irrigation enables producers to grow diverse, high-value crops, which increases on-farm profitability and enables value-added processing, business attraction and employment. The projects would create thousands of new jobs in construction and duration of operation. This represents potentially billions in new tax revenue for both the provincial and federal governments.
Most estimates say global food production must rise by 70% by 2050 to feed the projected nine billion people around the world. What increased irrigation of this scale means for Canada is a reduced reliance on food imports. Increased irrigation allows our country to grow not only more food per acre but also different crops, replacing costlier food imports that must travel further distances to reach our grocery stores.
The Water Security Agency has undertaken significant engagement activities with the local communities, rural municipalities, stakeholder groups and indigenous rights holders. In total, the project team has engaged in 18 in-person meetings with indigenous communities. These meetings included information and education on the projects, as well as the economic benefits they could provide to irrigators, agri-food production and other possible processing opportunities. I would say the feedback so far from these meetings has been very positive. We look forward to ongoing engagement with the public and indigenous rights holders as the work on the projects continues.
One of the frequent questions I'm asked is: Is there enough water for a project of this size? The short answer is yes. In preparing some of the preliminary work for these projects, WSA examined nearly 90 years of flow data to better understand the water supply and its availability and sustainability. We found that, with normal operations, there is almost 900,000 acre feet per year of water available. These projects, when fully built out, will use fewer than 700,000 acre feet per year. For some perspective, water lost due to evaporation each year equals about 4% of the annual inflow into Lake Diefenbaker, but these projects will use about 2% of annual inflow.
We believe the time for these projects to move forward is now. They hold immense potential for Canada, with strengthened food security, climate resilience, water sustainability and lasting economic benefits. Building the Lake Diefenbaker projects would be a tangible step towards achieving these goals and solidifying Canada's position as a global leader.
Over 50 years ago, we built Lake Diefenbaker together. Now is the time to fulfill the national historic vision and secure our future.
Thank you.