Hays is a hamlet in southern Alberta, Canada within the Municipal District of Taber.

The area was devoted to short-grass prairie ranching during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

As early as 1912, a canal and irrigation works were constructed to deliver water to the area from the Bow River at Carseland, but no land was irrigated there until 1952 after PFRA (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration), an agency of the Canada Department of Agriculture, purchased the assets of the Canada Land and Irrigation Company in 1950 for $2.25 million.

[4] It began a five-year construction program to renovate and expand the existing irrigation and water delivery works, and re-settle farmers to the area.

This was a design feature by PFRA engineers to minimize development costs, and to integrate surface drainage with water delivery to the irrigated parcels.