Alberta
‘Not as dramatic’: Saskatchewan farmers draining water demonstrate benefits

GRENFELL, Sask. — It’s an area of farmland Ryan Maurer says is worth as much as a Lamborghini.
High run-off flooded one of his fields in spring 2022, leaving shallow pools of water. This was before the farmer opened ditches to drain it.
“Would you take your Lamborghini and park it in a slough?” Maurer asked on his farm near Grenfell, Sask., about 125 kilometres east of Regina.
No, he says, he wouldn’t.
“But society’s asking us to do that,” Maurer added. “And then they turn around and tell us to grow more food.”
Maurer’s land is part of a drainage network known as the Tetlock Conservation and Development Area Authority. It’s where farmers work together to move water through each other’s land and out into a creek.
The farmers in the Tetlock network say the water is moved in a managed and slower pace when it’s released, helping mitigate potential flooding downstream. There are control gates, smaller culverts, tile piping and holding ponds.
In fact, the Tetlock normally only adds 0.5 per cent of water to the flow of the creek, indicates data provided by the farmers who oversee the network.
“It’s not as dramatic as everybody says it is,” said Owen Pekrul, a farmer who’s also part of the drainage network. “Because it’s a ditch or it’s organized, they think it affects a lot of things.”
But for some, drainage is a problem.
Farmers downstream of some other networks say huge gushes of water continue to wash out their fields each year.
Environmental groups also worry about the loss of wetlands, as some are drained to make way for more arable acres. They say this puts habitats at risk and causes water quality to degrade.
Rural municipalities have raised concerns about illegal works causing water to breach grid roads.
Rural officials have asked the Water Security Agency, which is in charge of overseeing drainage, to ensure illegal drainers get permits.
“The biggest concern that we have is that many ratepayers just are not following the rules that are in place, the laws if you will,” said Helen Meekins, a councillor with the Rural Municipality of Pleasantdale in southeast Saskatchewan.
“The rural municipality isn’t against drainage,” Meekins added. “But, if they go through the permit process, then at least we know where there’s going to be more water and how it’s going to affect the infrastructure that we have in place.”
Some farmers say managed networks, such as the Tetlock, could help address flooding issues as long as everyone upstream and downstream can work together.
Maurer, as well as others involved in the network, are members of the Saskatchewan Farm Stewardship Association, a group that has lobbied the province for managed drainage to promote soil health and crop production.
He said drainage helps him turn soil that’s too salty into something that can grow healthy crops.
It also allows him to be more productive with his time on the field. That’s because those working the machines don’t have to move around various sloughs when they apply fertilizer and spray chemicals.
“These little sloughs are a couple inches of water. There’s nothing major,” Maurer said. “So, we over-apply. How do we get around that? Well, drainage and management is the answer.”
Not all drainage has been done in a managed way in Saskatchewan.
For decades, producers have dug ditches to move water out without approval from the Water Security Agency.
In 2018, Saskatchewan’s auditor estimated there were up to 9,712 square kilometres of land with unapproved works.
The agency has said it’s brought many unpermitted works into compliance by working with landowners and making sure the stream, pond or lake can handle the amount of water flowing in.
Research projects have also been looking into best practices. In one, a farmer has been draining water from various sloughs into one larger consolidation pond.
Candace Mitschke, the executive director with the Saskatchewan Farm Stewardship Association, said different solutions are required for each farm because landscapes across the province aren’t the same.
But, she said, issues can be resolved when people work together.
In rare cases, farmers have expropriated downstream land so they can get a permit and manage the water appropriately.
“Sometimes you’re not going to get people to co-operate no matter what you do. In those cases, that’s when expropriation is that important piece and enables that network to function,” Mitschke said.
The Water Security Agency still has a ways to go to bring all unapproved works into compliance.
Since 2017, only about a third of land with unpermitted works, about 3,146 square kilometres, has been brought into compliance.
Saskatchewan’s auditor has recommended unpermitted drainage be addressed quickly. The longer people wait, it noted, the more frustrated they become.
The auditor has also recommended the agency establish a wetlands policy to ensure water quality doesn’t degrade, which the agency says it’s working on.
For Maurer, it’s all about water management. He again pointed to the Tetlock network as an example of good practices.
“If everybody did that, it would be managed going in,” he said. “Just by saying, ‘Quit draining water,’ it doesn’t help anybody. It creates the problem.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2023.
Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press
Alberta
Low oil prices could have big consequences for Alberta’s finances

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
Amid the tariff war, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil—a common benchmark—recently dropped below US$60 per barrel. Given every $1 drop in oil prices is an estimated $750 million hit to provincial revenues, if oil prices remain low for long, there could be big implications for Alberta’s budget.
The Smith government already projects a $5.2 billion budget deficit in 2025/26 with continued deficits over the following two years. This year’s deficit is based on oil prices averaging US$68.00 per barrel. While the budget does include a $4 billion “contingency” for unforeseen events, given the economic and fiscal impact of Trump’s tariffs, it could quickly be eaten up.
Budget deficits come with costs for Albertans, who will already pay a projected $600 each in provincial government debt interest in 2025/26. That’s money that could have gone towards health care and education, or even tax relief.
Unfortunately, this is all part of the resource revenue rollercoaster that’s are all too familiar to Albertans.
Resource revenue (including oil and gas royalties) is inherently volatile. In the last 10 years alone, it has been as high as $25.2 billion in 2022/23 and as low as $2.8 billion in 2015/16. The provincial government typically enjoys budget surpluses—and increases government spending—when oil prices and resource revenue is relatively high, but is thrown into deficits when resource revenues inevitably fall.
Fortunately, the Smith government can mitigate this volatility.
The key is limiting the level of resource revenue included in the budget to a set stable amount. Any resource revenue above that stable amount is automatically saved in a rainy-day fund to be withdrawn to maintain that stable amount in the budget during years of relatively low resource revenue. The logic is simple: save during the good times so you can weather the storm during bad times.
Indeed, if the Smith government had created a rainy-day account in 2023, for example, it could have already built up a sizeable fund to help stabilize the budget when resource revenue declines. While the Smith government has deposited some money in the Heritage Fund in recent years, it has not created a dedicated rainy-day account or introduced a similar mechanism to help stabilize provincial finances.
Limiting the amount of resource revenue in the budget, particularly during times of relatively high resource revenue, also tempers demand for higher spending, which is only fiscally sustainable with permanently high resource revenues. In other words, if the government creates a rainy-day account, spending would become more closely align with stable ongoing levels of revenue.
And it’s not too late. To end the boom-bust cycle and finally help stabilize provincial finances, the Smith government should create a rainy-day account.
Alberta
Governments in Alberta should spur homebuilding amid population explosion

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill and Austin Thompson
In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Alberta has long been viewed as an oasis in Canada’s overheated housing market—a refuge for Canadians priced out of high-cost centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. But the oasis is starting to dry up. House prices and rents in the province have spiked by about one-third since the start of the pandemic. According to a recent Maru poll, more than 70 per cent of Calgarians and Edmontonians doubt they will ever be able to afford a home in their city. Which raises the question: how much longer can this go on?
Alberta’s housing affordability problem reflects a simple reality—not enough homes have been built to accommodate the province’s growing population. The result? More Albertans competing for the same homes and rental units, pushing prices higher.
Population growth has always been volatile in Alberta, but the recent surge, fuelled by record levels of immigration, is unprecedented. Alberta has set new population growth records every year since 2022, culminating in the largest-ever increase of 186,704 new residents in 2024—nearly 70 per cent more than the largest pre-pandemic increase in 2013.
Homebuilding has increased, but not enough to keep pace with the rise in population. In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Moreover, from 1972 to 2019, Alberta added 2.1 new residents (on average) for every housing unit started compared to 3.9 new residents for every housing unit started in 2024. Put differently, today nearly twice as many new residents are potentially competing for each new home compared to historical norms.
While Alberta attracts more Canadians from other provinces than any other province, federal immigration and residency policies drive Alberta’s population growth. So while the provincial government has little control over its population growth, provincial and municipal governments can affect the pace of homebuilding.
For example, recent provincial amendments to the city charters in Calgary and Edmonton have helped standardize building codes, which should minimize cost and complexity for builders who operate across different jurisdictions. Municipal zoning reforms in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer have made it easier to build higher-density housing, and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat may soon follow suit. These changes should make it easier and faster to build homes, helping Alberta maintain some of the least restrictive building rules and quickest approval timelines in Canada.
There is, however, room for improvement. Policymakers at both the provincial and municipal level should streamline rules for building, reduce regulatory uncertainty and development costs, and shorten timelines for permit approvals. Calgary, for instance, imposes fees on developers to fund a wide array of public infrastructure—including roads, sewers, libraries, even buses—while Edmonton currently only imposes fees to fund the construction of new firehalls.
It’s difficult to say how long Alberta’s housing affordability woes will endure, but the situation is unlikely to improve unless homebuilding increases, spurred by government policies that facilitate more development.
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