“Alberta is on a roll,” said Premier Jason Kenney. He gave an update on COVID-19 and investment in irrigation in the province from a farm in Wheatland County this afternoon.

"We are making further investments to expand Alberta and modernize Alberta’s Irrigation network. Last fall, about a year back, we announced the participation of eight irrigation districts, and with gratitude, the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to support at that time it was a total investment to increase by 230,000 the amount of irrigated acres in Alberta to take it up to 1.63 million irrigated acres,” said Kenney.

Last year’s announcement was about $800 million in investment between the Government of Alberta and irrigation districts and the CIB.

“Today we're happy to announce that two more irrigation districts are coming on as partners and we are putting in an additional $118,000,000 to the historic expansion of Alberta irrigation,” said Kenney.

The announcement means the potential to create about 7,300 permanent jobs, according to the province, and 1,400 jobs in the construction industry with about $477 million added to the province’s GDP each year.

“This is incredibly good news for farmers and food producers across the province. This ambitious building program will help to create up to 7,300 permanent jobs and 1,400 construction jobs while contributing nearly half a billion dollars a year to Alberta's economy. To our gross domestic product,” said Kenney. “This is an expansion overall, but between last year's announcement and today's, of about 15 per cent of the acreage that will be covered by irrigation in Alberta.”

“This is great for jobs. It's great for agriculture and our farmers. It's great for economic diversification.

It will mean higher yields for crop production, for global markets, and it also means better conservation and management of our scarce water resources,” said Kenney.

 

The irrigation districts participating in the investment are

  • Bow River Irrigation District

    • Eastern Irrigation District

    • Leavitt Irrigation District

    • Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District

    • Raymond Irrigation District

    • Ross Creek Irrigation District

    • St. Mary River Irrigation District

    • Taber Irrigation District

    • United Irrigation District

    • Western Irrigation District

       

In addition to the irrigation announcement, the premier says Alberta has now received 5,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson and the province is waiting for an additional 15,000 doses. He urged people 18 years and older to call 811 to book appointments.