Canada’s water security strategystarts with the Canada WaterAgency
Tom Axworthy
The Hill Times | September 2025
Steven Guilbeault, left, who is now official languages minister and is a former environment minister, and current Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin at a press conference in the West Block on Oct. 2, 2024. Dabrusin is now the minister in charge of the Canada Water Agency. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
We are in crisis. This is a political rescue mission. Failure due to political apathy and neglect is not an option, nor acceptable.
For generations, Canadians took water for granted. We are blessed with lakes, rivers, and glaciers that make us one of the most water-abundant nations on Earth. Yet in the twenty-first century, abundance is not the same as security. Fires, floods, and droughts are turning water into a national security issue. Just as the definition of Canadian public safety broadened in government pronouncements after 9/11 to include terrorism, border integrity and critical infrastructure, Canada now needs to expand its understanding of security further to include the water-fire-disaster nexus.
This summer reminded us why. Wildfires reached the suburbs of St. John’s. Winnipeg was engulfed by nearly 20,000 climate refugees driven from their homes by northern wildfires. Toronto experienced worse air quality days than New Delhi in August 2025 due to smoke drifting in from Manitoba. As journalist John Vaillant writes, we now have a new norm of fire weather. Public Safety Canada declares (https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/index-en.aspx) that “the first priority of the Government of Canada is to protect the safety and security of Canadians both at home and abroad.” This usually means that the Canadian Armed Forces and other national institutions must first deter, and then, if necessary, protect Canadians from potential enemy threats.
Countries like Australia explicitly acknowledge that climate change is a threat multiplier. Australia’s 2024 National Climate Risk Assessment—aimed at educating the public— prioritizes 10 priority hazards such as bushfires and drought, and explains why they constitute a threat to eight systems of national importance, starting with defence and national security.
Canada’s National AdaptationStrategy and Public Safety’s National Risk Profile, of course, mention the climate emergency with water and fire risk, but not with the clarity and centrality of Australia’s approach. Canada
Thomas S. Axworthy is now public policy chair at Massey College and a member of the Forum for Leadership on Water. He was a principal secretary to then-prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.