Ag minister touts irrigation network expansion on southern Alberta tour

By ALEX McCUAIG Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on July 9, 2021.

amccuaig@medicinehatnews.com

Alberta Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen, on a whistle stop tour of southern Alberta on Thursday, said expansion of the irrigation network could see the provincial GDP grow by $500 million.

Dreeshen was in Medicine Hat prior to heading to Chin Reservoir south of Taber that’s part of an $815-million expansion of the province’s irrigation network.

Dreeshen says “there is overwhelming support” for the Chin expansion that will add tens of thousand of irrigated acres to St. Mary’s, Taber and Raymond irrigation districts.

Not only will the expansion see more crops, “but also attracting value-added food processing,” said Dreeshen.

As for the proposed Acadia Irrigation Project that would see the first irrigation system draw water from the Red Deer River, Dreeshen says feasibility work on that project continues.

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