The governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan have renewed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) respecting water management between the two provinces. The announcement was made by Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development Minister Ralph Eichler and Saskatchewan Minister Responsible for Water Security Agency Fred Bradshaw.
“We recognize the tremendous progress made in the last five years with Saskatchewan to improve water management across our shared watersheds,” said Eichler. “Renewing our partnership will help both jurisdictions continue to focus on today’s issues like flooding, drought and drainage, while providing a strong framework to meet new challenges.”
Manitoba and Saskatchewan share a number of transboundary watersheds including the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan rivers’ watersheds. Activities and developments such as drainage across these watersheds have the potential to impact downstream water quantity and quality.
“Saskatchewan looks forward to continue working with Manitoba as part of this important partnership,” said Bradshaw. “We feel this approach will identify and tackle issues that are important to landowners, communities, and our respective governments.”
Both governments entered into an MOU in 2015 that set out broad principles to facilitate a co-operative and co-ordinated approach in their efforts to mitigate flooding and drought, to protect and improve water quality and aquatic ecosystem health, and to achieve healthy, prosperous and sustainable-shared watersheds for present and future generations.
The renewed MOU will be in effect for five years, expiring in 2026. More information about the MOU is available here.
