The Red River Floodway () is an artificial flood control waterway in Western Canada. It is a long channel which, during flood periods, takes part of the Red River's flow around the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba to the east and discharges it back into the Red River below the dam at Lockport. It can carry floodwater at a rate of up to , expanded in the 2000s from its original channel capacity of . The Floodway was pejoratively nicknamed "Duff's Ditch" by opponents of its construction, after Premier Duff Roblin, whose Progressive Conservative government initiated the project, partly in response to the disastrous 1950 Red River flood. It was completed in time and under budget. Subsequent events have vindicated the plan. Since its completion in 1968, the Floodway is estimated to have prevented over $40 billion (CAD) in cumulative flood damage. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2000, as the floodway is an outstanding engineering achievement both in terms of function and impact. From south to north, the Floodway passes through the extreme southeastern part of Winnipeg and the rural municipalities of Ritchot, Springfield, East St. Paul, and St. Clements. History Following the submission of the Royal Commission report Manitobans were strongly divided as to whether the province could afford the capital costs of a mammoth engineering project that would benefit primarily Winnipeg. The project was championed by Dufferin (Duff) Roblin, the Leader of the Opposition and head of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party, but it was vehemently denounced by opponents as a monumental, and potentially ruinous, waste of money. Indeed, the projected Red River Floodway was derisively referred to as “Duff”s Folly” and “Duff’s Ditch”, and decried as “approximating the building of the pyramids of Egypt in terms of usefulness.” The construction of the floodway and Assiniboine River works, would entail a capital cost of over $72 million, amortized over fifty years at 4% interest, at a time when the province had a population of only 900,000 and an annual net provincial revenue of about $74 million. Following the formation of a new provincial government in June 1958, Duff Roblin, the newly-elected Premier of Manitoba, continued to promote the floodway, and managed to secure a commitment from the federal government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to pay up to 60% of the construction costs. Construction of the Floodway started on November 27, 1962, and finished