The Town of Carman and Rural Municipality (RM) of Dufferin are working with the provincial government to better the community’s water supply.
The Town and RM have been looking at ways to increase the area’s water supply for years. The project, dubbed the Boyne Valley Water Initiative Climate Resilience Project, comes amid the recent drought years that prompted residents to watch their water usage, sometimes prohibiting the filling of pools, using sprinklers, and encouraging people to use rain barrels to collect rainwater.
“The recent years we’ve had with dry conditions make you think,” said Rob Bryson, deputy mayor of Carman. “We just can’t take it for granted. We have to make sure we have a better supply of water.”
Bryson is spearheading the project. He said though the project has been in the works for years, the recent lack of moisture highlighted the risk for council. Though this year has seen much more moisture than years previous, town and RM council aren’t slowing down on the project — in fact, they may be speeding up.
With the new NDP government in office, Bryson and other council members are meeting with them to get the new officials up to speed on the Boyne Valley Water Initiative Climate Resilience Project. Bryson said they hope to find out where this project is on the provincial government’s priority list and get some things in motion.
Numerous studies have been done on the community’s current situation and the best ways to improve it, but none have prompted change. Currently, the Town of Carman and RM of Dufferin’s water is held in Stephenfield. Water is diverted from the Assiniboine River during the spring melt and retained at the Stephenfield Reservoir, where the water treatment plant sits.
The recent dry years, though, showed the town and municipality the water being held there simply is not enough for the residents, agriculture, and business needs. The RM of Dufferin has a population of more than 2,500 and the Town of Carman has more than 3,000 residents. Local greenhouses like Vanderveens and Aubin Nurseries require lots of water to keep their businesses running, and irrigated crops in the area are growing in numbers and size.
Bryson named three main reasons for the Boyne Valley Water Initiative Climate Resilience Project:
– Increase the community’s basic water supply to ensure that residents don’t need to worry about running out of water in dryer years.
– To attract new industry to the community.
– To increase potato acres in the community.
It’s the last reason that Bryson is most excited about.
“We’ve seen a huge growth in recent years in potato acreage in particular,” he said. “Irrigation is essential to that.”
With Simplot opening production facilities in the area, local potato growers have huge opportunities. Right now, Simplot has to go out of province to buy a lot of potatoes, and Bryson hopes to change that. He said this is a huge missed opportunity for the community as a whole.
“We can grow a lot more potatoes, but we need irrigation for both quantity and yield,” he added.
Bryson noted Alberta and Saskatchewan have been increasing potato infrastructure. In 2023, Alberta’s planted potato area was at 80,100. Saskatchewan has around 6,000 potato acres and Manitoba has 81,000.
Potatoes are one of the most expensive crops to grow, requiring the most water. The average potato requires 10 litres of water to grow. Water is always necessary for a potato crop but is critical for a potato plant’s vegetative growth and tuber formation at 30 to 60 days and at 60 to 90 days for tuber bulking.
In Manitoba, potato producers are largely in Portage la Prairie, Carberry, Carman, Morden, Winkler, and Plum Coulee. Last year, Manitoba’s potato production went up 8.1 percent from 2022 to 28.2 million hundredweight. Bryson is hoping to get more potato acres in Carman, and he said the key to that is the Boyne Valley Water Initiative Climate Resilience Project increasing the community’s water supply.
Carman and RM of Dufferin council are currently setting up meetings with government officials to get the project on their radar. Bryson said the first step is meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Minister of Economic Development, and the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure to explain the project. Step two is reviewing every study done and all the research and cataloguing the information to move onto step three, which is devising a plan.
“This is best for the people of Carman and the RM,” said Bryson. “More high-value production on every acre drives more tax dollars and revenue for local businesses. Everything that enhances our value per acre in agriculture betters our community as a whole.”
