Fire & Water: Two Sides, Same Coin
Michael Miltenberger
Keynote Address the FLOW x Massey College Symposium on Freshwater | September 2023
I remember walking around our house before leaving, saying goodbye, thanking the house for sheltering us all these years, thinking we may not have a home to come back to.
Like tens of thousands of other Northerners, we continue to live through the worst ever fire season as fires continue to burn as I speak. I will speak specifically to the fires around Fort Smith/ Fort Fitzgerald that very nearly caused our communities to be overrun by forest fire. Those fires that started in Wood Buffalo Park, south of 60, and Alberta continued to grow over the summer eventually coalescing into one massive fire of nearly 500K hectares which came to be called the Wood Buffalo Complex.
The situation became increasingly dire. We evacuated our communities Aug 12th. I remember walking around our house before leaving, saying goodbye, thanking the house for sheltering us all these years, thinking we may not have a home to come back to.
What saved us was the Creator, a couple of wind shifts at pivotal times when all seemed lost and the incredible efforts of the few hundred defenders that stayed behind, the firefighting personnel, the equipment operators, pilots, support staff of all kinds, they were relentless and indomitable, working round the clock, never giving up, never stopping, till our communities were saved.
The firefighter you see here is my grandson.
Jason Johnson, Miltenberger’s Grandson, a firefighter, surveying the wildfires from above. Photo Credit: Pilot Ciaran Nolan
Why am I telling you this? Fire and water are two sides of the same coin, and that coin, the often overlooked part of this metaphor, is our world:
In this jurisdictionally complex area no government and no one was prepared for the extreme fire weather and fire behavior. Governments and agencies responded by way of old, outdated policies and directives that lacked any reference to climate change and extreme weather impacts, with no lessons learned from the Slave Lake and Fort MacMurray fires. Resulting in critical on-the-ground improvisation in response to rapidly changing circumstances and conditions.
In the NWT there was no “whole of government plan for emergencies” in fact there were no departmental plans either, leading to great confusion, with near fatal consequences. The departments of ECC, Infrastructure and MACA stood shoulder to shoulder with local personnel on the ground in communities fighting the fires, managing the risk. They initially faced internal battles with the other departments that were intent on very short sighted risk aversion rather than stepping up to support the on .
Specifically, Health initially wanted to close down the health facilities and evacuate all staff because of the risk, leaving all the firefighting forces with no medical assistance should it be required. Justice, responsible for peace order and good government, initially pulled the RCMP out the communities because it was too dangerous, leaving communities and defenders to fight fires as well as provide policing services; the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, a territorial crown corporation, was initially going to shut off all power to communities to protect the generators, leaving the defenders little ability to defend and the communities doomed.
The Executive finally declared a state of emergency it was not prepared for. Communications failed as the fires destroyed power lines and poles by the hundreds, as well as fibre optic lines. What saved the defenders on the ground was the pivot to Star Link, maintaining the critical ability to stay coordinated in a very dangerous fluid environment.
There did not appear to be a “command central” where the Leaders and senior officials gathered to work with and support all the various operations on the ground. In fact, it seems that once a state of emergency was declared and evacuations announced, many of the Leaders and senior officials normally on the bridge of the NWT ship of state in YK, decamped and joined the exodus of evacuees.
When the fires coalesced into the Wood Buffalo Complex, a united command structure was created involving Parks Canada, Alberta and the NWT to coordinate activities related to a fire that was now in all three jurisdictions and threatening our communities. This was a wise, emergency-specific response but not good enough going forward in today’s world of extreme climate events all of which involve either fire and/or water, two issues of great national common concern.
When you look at a picture of the massive wall of flame think instead of a massive wall of water and would not the challenges and shortcomings being faced be the same?
A view of the wildfires only 10 kilometres from Michael’s home in Fort Smith, NWT, summer 2023. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson
What is needed is a whole of government approach, by all governments, when it comes to climate change and extreme weather events, which is our new normal.
Where does the CWA fit as a new national agency, and how do you get national buy-in and oversight from the Federal/ Provincial/ Territorial and Indigenous governments, without which the CWA will not thrive an flourish?
o We do not need more layers, structure and staff.
o We need planning, agreements, collaboration, cooperation and communication
o We need governments to work together to create the conditions for us to survive and succeed.
o The Canada Water Agency is a key institution in that mix
In my 14 years as Minister I quickly came to know of the many Councils of Canadian Ministers that exist for every area of government, it is a long list, with an extensive infrastructure to support it.
The general approach is that the Ministers gather once a year for a supper followed by a part day of meetings with an agenda that the jurisdictions could possibly agree on, and a pre-drafted press release done by officials. With the Environment it was things like waste water guidelines for municipalities ,or producer responsibility for water that stick in my mind, there was no talk of climate change or other pressing issues.
The point is this is a political part of cooperative federalism that sits there with enormous potential, already funded and vastly under-utilized. Meetings are co-chaired by the appropriate Federal minister and the Minister from the jurisdiction hosting the meeting:
o The CCME table for example which is currently broken, could be fixed and used.
o It could be evolved to add seats for Indigenous Government representatives and the table tasked with providing direction and oversight to the CWA.
o This could set a new way of doing business as governments in our world where no government can go it alone and the status quo as we see everywhere we look is not working.
I want to end with a reminder: Fire and water are two sides of the same coin and that coin, the often overlooked part of this metaphor, is our world.
Why do we need the CWA.
In 1968, there was a big meeting in Canada called the Water Workshop Seminar. Big-name lawyers presented papers on the constitution and water. Jurisdiction. Who could do what and why. They were asked to do that by the CCRM. This was 2 years before the Canada water act was created. Their main advice was that we need multi purpose basin authorities and mechanisms which the provinces cannot themselves create. “I cannot deny that it would require a federal government of unusual political courage to take such a step unilaterally.”
And yet they have. All the scholars of the time said the feds had the power. Not because water was of national importance, or because we need 100% uniformity, but because the things we needed to do could not be done by the provinces alone. So that is one reason we need the Act. Because the profs can’t do what new need done. Not alone. And the act currently has a standard that focuses on “urgent national concern”. If that means everywhere in Canada, then we need to change it. Urgent national concern needs to mean “because we can’t do it alone.”
Water crosses borders. Waters are organized in nature as a physical unit. But our lawns our governance needs to align with that. The CWA tried, and it was good it spurred quite a bit of activity. But now we have chilled. [Provinces]. And we have changed. We have climate changed.
Now, we are realizing it crosses more borders than we thought and the urgency is much greater than we thought. Water crosses not just prov-fed borders. It crosses borders into and out of Indigenous lands. The CWA currently allows for FPT agreements. It presumes the feds will act on behalf of Indigenous nations. But, in the age of Aboriginal title and the inherent right to self-government and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Act which requires in s. 5 that all the laws of Canada must be in conformity with the UNDRIP this is not only no longer acceptable, dare I say it is not legal.
Also, we seem to act as if the Canada we are living in is some kind of static box, that doesn't really change. In our lifetimes we have seen the 40% of canada become province, or be fully transferred to inuit. We have seen s.35. We have seen Ab Title. We have seen UNDRIP. We are changing. And anyone who thinks that how water is governed is not going to evolve…dramatically…well, it means you need to step out of the room; get out of the way. You are a relic and you are no longer relevant. You need to be asking how, not whether. As John Borrows says…”…”
We are fairly skilled at working together under coop federalism, and even with water. THE CWA currently allows for all kinds of things, like water management area designations, and the creation of committees and agencies to accomplish many things. But not with Indigenous peoples. So…that’s one reason we need the CWA and one way it needs to change.
The second…climate change. As JMM showed, CC is too much water or lack thereof. It is testing every system we have. And the reason is because we actually don't have “a system”. We have a bunch of fragmented approaches that look at water from a variety of demands…water for fish, for energy, for drinking, for agriculture. Most of this is at the prov level.
We don’t think of whether we have enough water for The System. The ecological system. If there is enough water for The System, then there is enough water for us to figure out how we want to share it. This is called ecological flows, or ecological base flows. I’ve seen variations that add Indigenous needs, called Aboriginal base flow (the amount of water needed in the system so that IPs can live and exercise their CN rights). But the point is there needs to be a requirement in CWA that sets out E flows. Not because water is so NB (it is) or because rivers cross borders (they do) but because provinces, terr, FNs cannot do it alone. We need a national approach to require this cooperation. Only Canada can do this.
The CWA currently focuses on quality. It needs to focus on quantity too. That is the third reason why we need the CWA and the way the CWA needs to change.
Michael served in the Northwest Territories Legislature from 1995-2015, 14 years as a Cabinet Minister. His roles have been diverse, including Deputy Premier, Government House Leader, Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister of Education, Minister of Finance, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Minister Responsible for the NWT Power Corporation. He has worked extensively in water, the environment, and collaboration with Indigenous governments. He was responsible for and led the development of the co-drafting approach in the NWT government that resulted in the new Wildlife Act and Species at Risk Act. Michael is currently the Principal of North Raven, senior political advisor to National Chief Norman Yakeleyaof the Dene Nation, a member of the Air Tindi Limited board of directors, and co-facilitator of theCollaborative Leadership Initiative in southern Manitoba. He lives in Fort Smith, NWT.