Manitoba Reverse Auctions (EcoTender)
Two powerful policy concepts frame the challenges and opportunities for decentralized water resources management in Manitoba: first, the application of integrated water resources management (IWRM) principles, and the evolution toward watershed-based local water resource management as expressed in Manitoba's Water Strategy; and second, the emergence of ecological goods and services concepts to characterize the economic value of the services that healthy watersheds provide to society.
The EcoTender project (piloted by the State Government of Victoria, Australia) demonstrates a novel approach towards applying upstream management practices for downstream water quality benefits. This process uses a reverse auctions methodology to ensure that highest value watershed-based beneficial management practices are undertaken. Our research explored the application of the Australian EcoTender model to the Manitoba context. Our first year of research provided a synthesis of the Australian model and broad lessons for the Manitoba context in the paper Towards the EcoTender Approach to Nutrient Management in Manitoba: A Background Review. In our second year of research, we applied the methodology more specifically to a smaller watershed, the Little Saskatchewan. The analysis looked at the data availability, existing institutional capacity for program delivery, modelling needs and costs for reverse auctions program planning and implementation in the watershed, and resulted in the research report A Reverse Auction System for Reducing Nutrient Loads in the Little Saskatchewan River Watershed.
Currently, we are providing analytical support to Manitoba's Interdepartmental Ecological Goods and Services (EGS) Working Group to develop a sustainable EGS policy for the Province of Manitoba.
