The ministry of agriculture in Alberta will now be referred to as the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, an Oct. 21 news release said. The ministry had previously been referred to as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
New Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the changed as part of of a cabinet shuffle. Nate Horner retains the job as the head of agriculture in the province but will now have the title of Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.
Alberta is the midst of an almost billion dollar irrigation system modernization project. There are 13 irrigation districts within Alberta, mainly concentrated in the southern part of the province, covering 1.5 million acres with 42 storage reservoirs. A report from the Alberta Irrigation Districts Association published in November 2021 titled the Economic Value of Alberta’s Irrigation Districts, found that between 2011 to 2018, irrigation from the area annually generated $5.4 billion to provincial GDP, $3.2 billion in labour income and supported about 46,000 full-time jobs.
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