A massive snowstorm kept away nearly half the delegates — about 160 — trying to travel to Brandon for the Manitoba Conservation District Association’s annual meeting, which was held from Dec. 6-8.
Numerous speakers also cancelled, but that resulted in some delegates successfully coaxed into taking their place, giving the event a new local tone.
MCDA chair Arnold Coutts said the end result is something organizers will be thinking over when planning future events. People said they really appreciated hearing about these local projects and perspectives, he said.
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“People like an inspirational speaker but we’ve got local people who are doing things. The problem is to get them to come out and speak.”
Funding needs
MCDA delegates gave the nod last week to a five-year work plan laying out strategic directions for the organization. One of its main goals is to get districts working more effectively together, Coutts said.
“The overall vision is for partners to work together effectively,” he said. “We’re trying to become one big team instead of a whole bunch of individual ones. We’re trying to be unified.”
In a closed session there was also talk about the financial situation of CDs. They need about a 12 per cent annual increase — or another $800,000 — just to keep up with inflationary costs, Coutts said, adding a funding increase would be the first in two decades.
“The budget for (all) conservation districts is just over $5 million right now and that amount works out to the same dollars we’ve been working with since 1997,” he said.
There have been some slight funding increases but these haven’t kept up with rising costs such as those associated with the use of earth moving equipment.
“The difference is in 1997 you could work with a machine for about half the price of what it is now,” Coutts said.
MCDA knows its ask for more money comes at a time the province is insisting all be extra careful about spending and account for every penny, Coutts added. The MCDA can deliver on that, he said. It knows exactly where it will go because CD managers have worked very hard to earmark what projects it will be spent on.
“They’re (the province) saying we’ve got to be more accountable for every cent,” he said.
“We’re asking for stability… an increase that at least covers the inflation rate.”
In a later interview, Coutts said that many conservation districts look forward to the implementation of Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) programming in Manitoba. A provincial spokesperson said during the MCDA that public and stakeholder consultations on ALUS, as well as on watershed planning and related surface water management initiatives, are expected to begin early in 2017.
Agenda changes
Delegates at the two-day meeting learned the details of many CD projects in various stages, from water-retention ponds recently constructed on farmland near Dauphin (please see related story: ‘Farm-based dry dams help reduce downstream flooding’ on page 1) to initiatives such as the Boyne River and the Swan Lake Group Plans now organized between clusters of local landowners. Staff with Sustainable Development shared information on the formation of Integrated Watershed Management Plans.
During question and answer periods there was some discussion about how to go about involving more First Nations communities in conservation districts. The management team for the Carrot-Saskatchewan River IWMP has a project underway to both summarize and highlight the plan and translate it into Cree.
Wendy Bulloch, co-ordinator of the provincial Open Farm Day which attracts as many as 6,500 visitors to farms across the province, was one guest speaker able to make a scheduled appearance.
Bulloch challenged conservation districts to step up their visibility.
“The work you do is still one of the best-kept secrets in this province,” she said. “The CD story is a fantastic one that is not being shared. Joe Blow and Jane Blow have no concept of it. I wonder even if some of our small communities really understand what you do.”
Bulloch is asking CDs to find a local farmer and participate together in Open Farm Day in 2017 to tell visitors to that farm what local CDs are doing.
