At an annual general meeting in Lethbridge for the largest irrigation district in Canada, it’s standing room only.

These AGMs for the St. Mary River Irrigation District, located in southern Alberta, are normally sleepy affairs. But this year is different as the province is staring down challenging drought conditions.

What’s expected today is big news for the 200-odd people filing into the room, some wearing jackets bearing the names of their respective operations.

Semi-arid southern Alberta, which relies heavily on irrigation, is expected to be hit with particular challenges — and new data from Environment and Climate Change Canada paints a striking picture of Canada’s Prairies.

  • jadero
    3·
    8 months ago

    Humankind may have to abandon the praries, later this century, exactly as most of California, most of Texas, most of the Middle East, & most of India are going to be unusable.

    I live near the tip of the Palliser Triangle in Saskatchewan. My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that having Lake Diefenbaker isn’t going to make enough of a difference to matter.

    The people in charge already have trouble keeping it full because of overall flow reductions. Agreements or not, Alberta still gets first crack at the South Saskatchewan River and overall flow is likely going to keep going down. Irrigation projects are rapidly becoming a boondoggle, not a solution.