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Seeking Water Justice: Strengthening Legal Protection of Canada's Drinking Water
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FLOW, Ecojustice and the Centre for Indigenous Environment Resources examine the the status of drinking water quality in Canada through Seeking Water Justice: Strengthening Legal Protection for Canada’s Drinking Water. The report reveals that certain communities in Canada – specifically rural and First Nations - are vulnerable to drinking water contamination. Risks are attributed to inadequate infrastructure, patchwork provincial laws, and a lack of binding drinking water standards from the federal government. The report calls for world-class, enforceable drinking water standards that are consistent across Canada, resources for First Nations drinking water services and transparent reporting on the state of drinking water systems across the country.
If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Goucher.
The Evolution of Science in Canada
This speech analyzes the Canada-U.S. relationship over four 25-year periods between 1940 and 2040. Prior to 1965, economic growth directed governance, policy and cross-border relations. Science flourished and governments developed a reasonable understanding of their resource base. Between 1965 and 1990, reliance on technology increased and utilized systems approaches to address science-policy issues. After about 1990, globalism and competitiveness agendas dominated conventional wisdom on governance. As we move into the future, Pentland asks ‘Do we have time to get rich first and get smart later’? He suggests that Canada and U.S. need to work together to develop fundamental global solutions that elevate nature above economy and move towards a green economy. Canada needs to improve its pollution policies, discourage bulk water exports and work with the IJC to cope with issues in shared watersheds.
Good Governance Ideas in Need of Recalibration
Mr. Pentland discusses the need to rethink three influential concepts that affect
water management: sustainable development, “smart regulation” and theories about managing in an information age.
The implications of these concepts suggest that the world and Canada’s place in it are very different than they were when the 1987 Federal Water Policy was written. We need comprehensive water policy reform that recognizes that water and other natural resources are central to our very existence; policy that strengthens and integrates top-down knowledge and policies with bottom-up decisions and action; and that contributes to broader public policy reforms beyond the water sector. In the meantime, local water managers should focus on maximizing the resilience of local ecosystems.
