The Ecological Corridor program is stopped: lessons learned and a path forward.
Mercifully, the Assiniboine West Watershed District has made the decision not to sign a contribution agreement with Parks Canada for a $1 million grant to deliver programming within the federal government’s Ecological Corridor program framework. This ends a months-long, divisive battle between a rapidly expanding group of local agricultural producers, known as the Manitoba Land Stewards Inc. (MLS), and the Assiniboine West Watershed District (AWWD).
The conflict has raged on since last Fall, with the intensity increasing to a fever pitch leading up to an eventful Town Hall Meeting in Erickson last week (Jan.15) where hundreds of concerned citizens and landowners packed the town’s Legion Hall to hear presentations from the MLS and the Manitoba Wildlife Federation (MWF). The rural community has been divided, feelings have been hurt, and damage has been done to all involved.
Unsurprisingly, the blame-game has begun, with some pointing fingers at the Manitoba Land Stewards and the Manitoba Wildlife Federation as the cause of all this heartache. Normally, all parties can claim some fault in situations like this.
Sorry, not this time.
The Ecological Corridor program was doomed from the start. Only a federal bureaucracy, sequestered in an office in a city far, far away could possibly have thought it was a good idea to place the Ecological Corridor program under the banner of Parks Canada. The Corridor program is functionally a private-land agricultural conservation program, it just didn’t know it. It seems obvious that the federal folks out east who designed the Corridor program didn’t think of it from an agricultural producer perspective, which was their first mistake.
Nor would federal policy experts from far away realize that Parks Canada has a long and somewhat difficult relationship with landowners south of Riding Mountain Park, including, among other things, attempting to create a sort of “buffer zone” around the parks many years ago. Landowners have a long memory, and those feathers are still ruffled to this day.
MAKE A BETTER CHOICE
Agriculture Canada, or Environment and Climate Change Canada would have been better choices to lead the Corridor program. Moreover, an institution like Agriculture Canada knows how to talk to farmers and is in the business of producing documents for agricultural producers. Regrettably, when it comes to rural landowners, the Parks Canada documentation for the Corridor simply could not have been worse in our view.
The program materials were hyper focused on species at risk and spoke of what “compatible activities” would be allowed within the Corridor with no clear indication of what that actually meant, only repeated references to the need for “regulatory mechanisms.” All scary stuff for agricultural producers, so it’s no wonder there was pushback.
Perhaps the most surprising part was the Assiniboine West Watershed District’s (AWWD) response to the push-back. Repeatedly and systematically, the concerns of landowners were framed as “unfounded.” Minimizing your customer’s feelings are never a good approach, especially when your business relies on private land access.
Watershed Districts are chronically under-funded, so nobody can blame them for chasing federal grants to do work in their area. We can imagine that the allure of a $1 million dollar grant from the federal government must explain how the AWWD continued to push forward when it was clear landowners were not comfortable and did not trust Parks Canada as the lead agency.
On the Corridor, questions were asked, and good answers never came. Not surprising when the nearest contact from Parks Canada for the Corridor was in Quebec. The lack of timely, solid information added to the growing fears, and well, here we are.
So, What Now?
Trust is everything when it comes to doing conservation in rural, agricultural communities. It is hard to establish but easy to lose. So, it’s paramount now that everyone let bygones-be-bygones and remember that we were all put in a bad position here by a program that essentially guaranteed a bad outcome for all involved. We would all do well to remember that the Watershed District has always been a great organization with a solid community-based model for conservation. The last thing we need to do now is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Yes, the District should do some soul searching too and understand why it took this so far over a single federal grant, and we hope they will.
The Corridor program focused heavily on the need for Indigenous leadership and laws, even though the land is vastly privately owned. But let’s please all remember that it wasn’t our Indigenous friends who designed this federal program which excluded meaningful engagement for farmers. Lord knows Indigenous communities know better than anybody what it’s like to be excluded from planning. We look forward to reaching out to Indigenous communities to start a new dialogue without government interference.
The Corridor is stopped, and the sun rises on a new day. Federal winds of change are blowing. Regardless of who is running the country next, we all have an opportunity for a new national conservation strategy that brings us all together instead of dividing us. A conservation re-start is needed, with a focus on good engagement for all involved. Let’s hope conservation groups and new government leaders learn from what went wrong in western Manitoba because we all need conservation.
Rob Olson, M.N.R.M
Senior Science Advisor
Manitoba Wildlife Federation
