A first step in the Springbank Off-stream Reservoir Project, approved to proceed by the ND government in October 2015, is an environmental impact assessment (EIA).  The EIA requires geotechnical studies be completed on the impacted land over a four-season period.  In early 2015, we were assured by the former government that the EIA would commence in spring 2015.  That never happened – and we lost a year.  In early 2016, we were assured by the present government that the EIA would commence in spring this year.  The question many of you have been asking is whether that is indeed happening.  Because, if it does not, we lose another year of flood protection on the Elbow River.

We have been keenly engaged on this issue over the past months.  We’ve had regular teleconferences and meetings with the Ministry of Transportation, who is responsible for the Springbank project.  We are encouraged by what we’ve learned.    We’ve been assured that the government fully expects to commence activities on the land this spring.  We are expecting public information to be available shortly to confirm our understanding – and more importantly, we expect to be able to see physical activities taking place on the land in the immediate future.  And if that is not the case – we will seek full accountability from the government, because they have all the legal tools they require to make this happen and to avoid any further date slippage.  There really are no excuses.

For all of you that have been writing to the Premier and the Ministers – your voices are being heard.  You do make a difference.  And we cannot stop until we are fully protected – on both rivers.