Municipal road widening could mean loss of crop for some farmers

With farm equipment getting bigger, the roads farmers travel need to widen to support traffic.

This year, the Rural Municipality of Meadow Lake purchased 17 ft on either side of its roads from land owners and is slowly widening them to support the growing traffic.

Before construction starts, R.M. staff advise land owners to not plant crops too close to the road. Since the land was recently purchased, administrator Gina Bernier said some crops may be cut down during the construction period.

“Council is looking at paying the farmer who planted on that 17 ft, they would potentially be paid out if his crop his damaged,” she said. “If we don’t begin construction before he harvests it off we would not be paying any crop damage.”

With the construction planned within the R.M., Bernier figured there will be one farmer affected who would have to be paid out. However she said the amount, if any, is yet to be determined as the R.M. isn’t sure when construction will start. If cut down, farmers would be paid market value for any lost crop.

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Currently, the majority of municipal roads are 66 ft wide. With the purchase and construction, roads will expand to approximately 100 ft.

Bernier added the road widening is being done slowly and all work is being communicated with the farmers and land owners.

Colton Swiderski is meadowlakeNOW’s municipal affairs, crime and court, health and education reporter. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski.