Premier’s Task Force on Agriculture and Food Economy

Prioritize a province-wide effort to slow and hold water by building water storage at both on-farm and larger community-scales, including both conventional dugouts, dams and reservoirs, as well as nature-based solutions that slow and store water (such as Beaver Dam Analogues and aquifer recharge) in both WLRS permitting and AF funding programs

Streamline requirements under the Dam Safety Regulation for lower-risk agricultural and environmental flow dams, dugouts and reservoirs and explore options to streamline permits for water infrastructure projects 

Develop clearer pathways to securing public and private low interest financing for community-scale agricultural water infrastructure projects (e.g., community and cooperative investment vehicles, infrastructure bonds, public-private partnerships, and federal investment)

Clear the backlog of existing use groundwater applications that were submitted prior to the 2022 deadline by automatically converting all existing use applications to authorizations without further review. For users that did not submit before the 2022 deadline, government should streamline applications for new groundwater use, with low volume users automatically issued authorizations at a threshold at or higher than domestic users

Incentivize participation in groundwater licensing. The members recommended that government explore options that would require possession of a water licence for eligibility for government programs (e.g. grants, risk management, farm classification)

Ensure that farmers and ranchers have a seat at the table in watershed planning. The Task Force emphasized the importance for the agriculture sector to foster stronger relationships with First Nations, local government and other water users, and to participate in governance forums in a way that supports collaboration on creative and enduring solutions to water scarcity. To ensure that planning processes are successful, government should resource community-level watershed planning processes with the right technical capacity and a streamlined toolkit that helps accelerate progress to unlock community-led solutions

Identify opportunities to proactively set aside water for potential agricultural water infrastructure projects through agricultural water reserves and Water Sustainability Plans, which links watershed planning directly to building water storage

Develop provincial guidelines that require local governments to play a leadership role in regional planning and infrastructure for agricultural water security and ensuring other development decisions do not adversely impact long-term agricultural water security