TEL AVIV — Mel Lazareck, Manitoba’s special representative to Israel for economic and community relations, recently met with staff from various Israeli water, medical and technology organizations.

Mel Lazareck, Manitoba’s special representative to Israel for economic and community relations. [Photo courtesy of  Winnipeg Jewish Review]

Over the past two weeks, Lazareck has had discussions with representatives of private companies, university departments and quasi-governmental organizations.

“My ultimate goal is to develop relationships with a variety of Manitoba and Israeli organizations to their mutual benefit,” says Lazareck, a retired businessman who was appointed special representative by Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger in October 2010.

Manitoba is on a population growth spurt, Lazareck said, and the province is committed to improving and widening the economy.

“We’re looking at other parts of the world where they may know what they’re doing, and that’s Israel,” he said. “Israel punches far above its weight.”

Initially, the government of Manitoba came to Israel on a quest for water expertise.  Despite that Lake Winnipeg is bigger than Israel, and unlike Israel, the province is replete with natural resources, the two places have some water issues in common. Israel, having coped with decades of water shortage, has engineered unparallelled solutions for dealing with water issues.

The relationship between Manitoba and Israel began when the former president of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) for the Prairie region of Canada, the late Graham Dixon, suggested Manitoba Minister of Water Stewardship Christine Melnick look to Israel for answers to some of the province’s water problems, particularly those related to the rehabilitation of Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba’s Netley/Libau wetlands.

Since then, there have been two major joint Manitoba-Israel water symposia, one in August 2008 and one in January 2010. Selinger came to visit Israel in October 2010, and memorandums of understanding (MOU) have been signed regarding co-operative research between Israeli and Manitoba scientists on a number of issues, including waste-water recycling, nutrient management, and wetland preservation. An MOU has also been signed between the province of Manitoba and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) on birding research and ecotourism.

Melnick has been at the forefront of these initiatives, said Lazareck.

“I do not believe any other government has taken such a public stand on their ongoing relationship with Israel. In general, Canada is very supportive of Israel, but Manitoba is just exceptional. We’re hoping this sort of initiative will spread to other provincial governments,” he said.

This year, Melnick will be awarded Manitoba’s KKL-JNF’s Negev Award, which she will receive in a ceremony in Winnipeg on May 31. “We anticipate that Minister Melnick will continue to set a strong example that will influence others to see Israel in a positive light,” Lazareck said.

Over the past two weeks, Lazareck, who took over Dixon’s role in September 2007, has met with representatives from the Mekorot, Israel’s national water company; with Global Water Technologies in Herzliya, which developed a way to monitor city water systems; and with water experts at Ben-Gurion University, who are working on grey water recycling.

“We’ve had some great meetings, and we expect they will lead to collaborations on various water programs,” Lazareck said. “Manitoba may have eight per cent of the fresh water in the world. But we’re not taking it for granted.”

Lazareck would also like to take the Manitoba-Israel relationship beyond water and establish co-operative ties between the two places in the fields of medicine and technology. This trip, he met with researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, who are developing various robotic-based medical technologies.

“Israel is second in the world after the U.S. in the development of new technology, and we would like to bring some of these technologies back to Manitoba,” he said.

Lazareck said he hoped that the JNF World Leadership Conference, that took place in Eilat from March 27 to April 1, would result in further avenues of co-operation. “The relationship between Manitoba and Israel is getting stronger and that’s wonderful,” he said.