April 1, 2022
Province Welcomes Eight Municipalities to the Watershed Districts Program
– – –Watershed Districts Play Key Role in Building Manitoba's Climate Resiliency: Wharton
The Manitoba government’s highly successful watershed districts program is expanding to include eight new municipal partners, Environment, Climate and Parks Minister Jeff Wharton announced today.
“Our government recognizes the importance of managing water on watershed boundaries. These efforts play a key role in building climate resiliency within the province, helping to protect water, soil and habitat,” said Wharton. “We are pleased to welcome new municipal partners to the Pembina Valley and Redboine Watershed Districts, resulting in increased watershed programming for producers and residents of these eight municipalities.”
Watershed districts are established under the Watershed Districts Act and are formed as a voluntary partnership between the province and local municipalities to protect, restore and manage water resources on a watershed basis. Watershed districts offer a wide range of programming to advance integrated watershed management plans and meet local priorities including water retention, erosion control, the restoration and enhancement of wetlands and other habitat, and work with agricultural producers to protect Manitoba’s water quality.
“Manitoba’s continued investments and partnerships around watershed-based programming delivered by watershed districts has been a game changer,” said Bill Howatt, board chair, Pembina Valley Watershed District.
New municipal partners in the Pembina Valley Watershed District and the Redboine Watershed District are:
- Pembina Valley Watershed District – municipalities of Emerson-Franklin and Rhineland, Rural Municipality of Montcalm, the Town of Altona and the City of Winkler; and
- Redboine Watershed District – rural municipalities of Rosser, St. François Xavier and Woodlands.
“Manitoba Association of Watersheds is pleased to see further expansion of the Watersheds District Program and thanks the Province of Manitoba and the new partner municipalities for their support, said Garry Wasylowski, board chair, Manitoba Association of Watersheds. “The importance of Manitoba's 14 watershed districts has never been greater than it is now as we collectively seek to build climate resiliency within the province.”
Since 2020, Manitoba has increased funding to the 14 watershed districts by $560,000 to a total of $5.873 million in 2021/22. In all, 111 of the 137 municipalities in Manitoba are now part of the program, making significant incentive programming around water management available to residents of the partnering municipalities.
More information regarding Manitoba’s Watershed District Program can be found at: www.manitobawatersheds.ca.
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