Time to fix Canada’s broken freshwater management regime

The emergency alarms are ringing and a response that matches the urgency of the moment is needed. This response must be proactive and sustainable, not simply a series of stop-gap responses to imminent or ongoing crises. One promising development is the Canada Water Agency, a new federal water institution that was first announced by our current federal government during the 2019 election campaign.

Water management in Canada is notoriously tricky business—constitutional jurisdiction over water is divided between federal and provincial governments, with municipalities also playing an important role and Indigenous nations gradually reclaiming authority over water on their territories.Image courtesy of Commons Wikimedia

Opinion

BY Oliver M. Brandes, Richard Farthing-Nichol, J. Michael Miltenberger, and Merrell-Ann S. Phare

July 5, 2021

Floods, droughts, fire, water unfit to drink—these are all increasingly common occurrences across Canada as stressed water supplies are subject to the extremes of climate change. The changing of the seasons is increasingly defined by water crises; in a country this vast, these crises manifest very...

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