http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/westman-needs-engineers-not-lawyers-136722168.html
The commentator is correct in that the answer lies in engineering.
However, he is not correct in stating that more studies need to be done. All the Manitoba gov has to do is pick up the reports of the Souris Valley Commission reports that were prepared in the mid to late 1970’s at a significant cost to government (how much money is $10 million dollars of 1970 money translated into current terms). The solutions have already been defined to flood proof and drought proof western Manitoba as well as downstream communities all the way to Winnipeg. The stack of reports prepared in the 1970’s are over 2 feet in height. Someone just needs to read them!!
The problem is that there is a complete absence of political will to put those solutions into place. Instead, the easy answer is to flood Lake Manitoba instead and leave the residents of that region paying the cost to protect the capital region.
There is a big role for the federal government to step into this situation and start investing to avoid disasters instead of paying to fix up the damage after the fact. In this current era of deficit reduction, hopefully some bean counter down there in Ottawa starts to ask how they can avoid paying massive disaster assistance payments to Manitoba by investing in flood prevention works in Saskatchewan and western Manitoba.
