Spending more than $5 billion on large-scale Canterbury irrigation will create 17,000 new jobs and boost the region's economy by 8 per cent a year, a report says. The first economic assessment of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy says building water storage in Tekapo, Lake Coleridge, Lees Valley and Hurunui will cost $5.2b and irrigate an extra 236,000 hectares reports The Timaru Herald. On-farm gross domestic product would be boosted by $400 million a year and $1.7b would be added to regional GDP annually, an 8 per cent increase. An estimated 17,000 extra jobs would be created throughout the region, including 3000 farm jobs, the report said.

Environmentalists warn the report is "superficial" and does not account for environmental mitigation. But irrigation proponents were encouraged by the analysis and said benefits like recreational opportunities could not be quantified in dollar terms. Cabinet is expected today to discuss the future of ECan, following the damning Creech report which recommended sacking the elected councillors, appointing commissioners and establishing a regional water authority. The Government is expected to decide within weeks if it will adopt the report's recommendations.

The Canterbury Water Management Strategy report's findings were described as "compelling" by Agriculture Minister David Carter. He said despite the strategy being "intertwined" with ECan's future, the Government had high regard for the strategy, which was being driven by the Canterbury Mayoral Forum and was launched in 2002. Irrigation New Zealand chairman Graeme Sutton said he was encouraged by the report, although the benefits of irrigation would probably not flow through until the second generation of farmers. He said a storage lake in the Lees Valley the size of Lake Tekapo could create "another Queenstown". "There are other benefits which are not tangible in dollars."