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John Zbitniff says this is the week he’d normally be out in his fields seeding.
But not this year. His land in the RM of Good Lake in east-central Saskatchewan is covered in water.
“If it starts raining, we’re going to get later, but we’re looking like probably two weeks later than normal,” he said on Tuesday while sitting in his truck after going for a drive to check things out.
“Today is my normal start date, and I’m thinking May long weekend, May 20 [for seeding]. It’s going to be in Mother Nature’s hands.”
Fields are flooded and roads are washed out throughout the northwest, northeast and central regions of Saskatchewan, due to the rapid melting of the above-average snow pack.
Residents in some areas are evacuating due to flooding, including Red Earth Cree Nation and the RM of Connaught, where high inflows into the river systems are threatening homes.
Down the road from where Zbitniff stopped to talk to CBC, an excavator stood like a sentry. It had been used to cut an opening in the road to let the waters through and save the culverts and road structure.
John Zbitniff’s family farm was hit by the recent rapid snow melt. He describes the damage, how close the water came to his home and the recent history of flooding in the area.
Darryl Deighton has been watching the water in the region, particularly where it runs into Good Spirit Lake, where his business, Canora Beach Resort, is located.
“We’re probably, today or tomorrow, going to achieve what they call the flood stage,” he told CBC’s Aliyah Marko-Omene on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be a gradual, gradual rise up over a duration of time, and we don’t know what that duration is yet because there’s still snow to melt up north.”
He’d like to see more planning done to allow for more runoff from the lake when the inflows are so high, although he acknowledges it’s not a simple task when there’s water everywhere.
Roads, fields and now homes are being threatened by flooding across Saskatchewan.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency said it was responding to 20 active flooding incidents. Year-to-date, it reports there have been 26 incidents — more than triple the five-year average of seven incidents.
At least 15 towns, rural municipalities and First Nations have declared local states of emergency.
The Opposition NDP said this year’s flooding should be ringing alarm bells about the government’s decision to cut “critical funding” for highways and dams in the province.
Darcy Warrington, the NDP’s highways critic, said residents are watching helplessly as roads disappear underwater or are washed out.
“The highways capital budget has been reduced by $20.5 million … and at the same time, capital spending for dams and water supply channels has been cut by 16 per cent,” he told media on Tuesday.
“We can’t control the weather, but we can be proactive.”
Michael Weger, the minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, said he went on a tour of the Quill Lake region on Tuesday and met with residents there to talk about how the government can help them.
He said the agency has been providing resources to communities that ask for help, such as sandbags and water pumps — and in some cases, personnel.
“[We were] able to see the water right on the edge of the town of Quill Lake, and of course, witness first-hand the devastating effects of the water,” he told reporters in Regina.
