Manitoba Government NEWS Public Information Branch Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg SERVICE MANITOBA Phone 946-7439 Date: May 271 1968. INTERLAKE FACELIFTING WITH 'FRED' FUNDS Interlake residents, with the help of the Manitoba and federal governments, are well on their way in making far-reaching changes in the physical appearance of the Interlake, agriculture minister Hon. Harry J. Ens reports. In the past 11 months since the Fund for Rural Economic Development (FRED) agreement for the Interlake was signed, 840 farmers have applied for four dollars per acre incentive grants to clear 47,000 acres of bush from their land. Since last September, 43 contractors have been at work removing the bush from land capable of field crops production and good pasture. "The potential of this land has not been fully exploited until now," Mr. Enns said. "Almost 80 per cent of the land Aaaring is being done in the northern part of the region where farming has long been limited by bush." Under the FRED agreement, assistance is available to clear up to half a million acres of land by 1977. The agreement also provides for joint government financing for reconstruction of two provincial trunk highways, several provincial roads and seven major drainage systems. Last year contractors started reconstruction of No. 6 highway between Lundar and Gypsumville and No. 68 between Hnausa and Eriksdale. Road-building equipment was at work on 22 miles of No. 6 highway and 121/2 miles on No. 68 highway. This coming summer, the department of highways will supervise contracts covering 110 miles of reconstruction 4, ( m these highways alone plus another 21 miles of provincial roads. The drainage reconstruction program is restricted to those major systems draining tracts of good arable land. As is the case in the highways program under the FRED agreement, the province is tackling these projects during the first few years of the 10-year agreement. The seven drainage systems include Long Lake, Upper Grasmere, Sturgeon Creek, Icelandic River, Fisher River, the Birch Creek extension and Boundary Drain. Last summer about 30 miles of channel reconstruction was completed mainly in the southern half of the region, along with engineering studies of the Fisher River and Icelandic River Systems, and Boundary Drain. This summer about 40 miles of excavation is planned. Work on the Upper Grasmere system will be completed. Under the FRED agreement, the federal government assumes 60 per cent of the cost of reconstructing the specified highways and drains. pp to $7 million will be spent by the two governments on drainage improvement projects and $8.8 million on roads over the 10-year term of the agreement. -more- INTERLAKE FACELIFTING From May, 1967, to the end of the past fiscal year, the Manitoba and federal government spent $2.8 million on rural development projects in the Interlake, most under the 10-year FRED agreement signed by the two governments in Arborg last May 16. Manitobats share was about 40 per cent of the total. Emphasis during the coming year will be on adult training, highway and drain reconstruction, bush clearing, development of the first phase of a serviced industrial park at Selkirk and development of recreation areas on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg. Adult training and bush clearing programs are phased over the entire period of the agreement. The objectives are to provide occupational training to at least 450 adults each year and to open up an average 50,000 acres of land per year. The Interlake agreement provides for an expenditure of up $85 million in development projects by the federal and provincial governments by 1977. Of this total, up to $26.7 million will go for schools and education, $28.6 million for adult training and education, $27.5 million for resources improvements and $2.2 million for administra- tion. -30-