If you live on the Canadian Prairies you are no doubt aware of the wet conditions this spring.
The farm news has certainly been focused on the wet conditions. As we enter the third week of May little crop is in the ground, and in the local east central region of Saskatchewan few farmers have even been able to venture onto their fields.
The impact could be thousands of acres left idle this year, and that will have a trickle-down impact on the rural economy.
It's a case where when farmers are not able to harvest a full crop, they spend less simply because they have less income.
The wet spring goes further than farmers though.
We have seen communities such as Winnipeg where they are doing controlled floods, impacting some homes, but with a goal to protecting more homes in other areas of the city.
The wet fall, and snow melt load has simply saturated the soil and forced the spring run-off over land and that has put many homes in jeopardy across a wide area of the province.
And then there is the impact on municipalities, which of course will come back to impact taxpayers.
There are hundreds of bridges across the Prairies and hundreds of culverts which will need to be either completely replaced, or extensive work carried out to make them safe and stable again.
Many roads are also in bad condition based on wet conditions leading to more frost boil damaged than is normal.
Drive around Yorkton and there are streets which have holes big enough to seemingly swallow the average car whole.
Head south and the back nine of York Lake Golf Course is nearly covered with water. It is essentially one big water hazard.
The road south to York Lake Regional Park is in such bad shape some groups have worried about access to events at the park if wet weather were to continue.
Municipalities, whether urban as in the City of Yorkton, or rural municipalities where roads have flooded and traffic has punched holes in the surface, considerable repair work will be required in the weeks ahead, and that will cost money, money not likely fully covered by annual budgets.
How the work will be funded will be a challenge for municipalities, and for the senior levels of government who will no doubt be turned to for aid, although it will all come from taxpayer pockets in the end.
