The Saskatchewan NDP has been touring the area, looking at what has been happening with flood recovery and what needs to happen in the case of wet weather in the future. Buckley Belanger, MLA for Athabasca and critic for the Water Security Agency, and Cathy Sproule, MLA for Saskatoon-Nutana and critic for Agriculture were in the city to talk to people about what they want to see happen.
"We wanted to get out here and put our feet on the ground to take another look. I was here two weeks ago with our leader Cam Broten, and we just want to be sure we can be as constructive as possible in examining the result of the rain issue," Sproule says.
One of the big problems they're seeing and hearing about is drainage. Sproule says the problem is that there is no plan for drainage in the area, and she says that's compounding many of the problems farmers are facing due to flooding in the region.
"We need to see a comprehensive program, especially in this area. For so many years, we're seeing that wet is the new norm. This kind of rainfall is going to be usual rather than unusual, and if that's the case we need to see a government that's willing to move forward with a comprehensive plan," Sproule says.
Belanger agrees, and adds that's it's clear that an ad hoc approach is not going to be effective for people in the region as they deal with wet weather now and into the future. He says that what they want to see, and what the people they spoke to want to see, is leadership on the drainage issue in the province.
"It's important to come out here during the crisis, but the NDP doesn't want to walk away from this thing. What we want to see is some definitive leadership from this government, and if they don't do it, we want people out there to know that they have been dragging their feet, they have not been providing any kind of leadership to the effect that people are happy with how things are occurring out here. That's why it's important that we're here during the recovery stage, to make sure we hear what people have to say, we learn from them, and we hold this government to account. So far, all we're hearing is frustration, anger, and a total lack of leadership," Belanger says.
The Water Security Agency has the information which would be vital to finding a solution, Belanger says, but he believes they need more resources in order to implement drainage solutions in the area. He also says that several government agencies need to work together on this issue, since the excess of water affects a wide variety of different areas, such as highways and agriculture.
Sproule also adds that inappropriate drainage needs to be cracked down on, as well as having rewards for people who handle drainage on their land properly. She says that the water systems are continually under attack now from the wet weather, but also from the added problem of inappropriate drainage sending more water their way.
They also argue that it is a problem that can't be handled on the RM level, since it's a problem that's much bigger than the borders of each municipality and it's impossible to effectively counteract without taking the larger province into account.
Belanger concludes that the leadership needs to come from the top down, and that until there's a comprehensive plan in place, it will be the cause of a great deal of frustration on the part of individual farmers, whose livelihood is at stake.
