Michael Miltenberger on ‘the Alberta water ploy’
The YellowKnifer | December 2025
We are in crisis. This is a political rescue mission. Failure due to political apathy and neglect is not an option, nor acceptable.
Not even a year into U.S. President Donald Trump’s term and the world is in political chaos and the global climate crisis continues to worsen. In the Mackenzie Basin — the largest river basin in Canada, which includes the NWT, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Saskatchewan — this means the years-long drought deepens. Rain and snowfall are way below normal. Temperatures are way above seasonal norms. The water levels in our rivers and lakes are dropping. In many cases, lakes and rivers have dried up completely. Ground water levels are also dropping. The land is drying out. Wildfire indicators remain dangerously high. In some communities, access to potable water is no longer guaranteed. Recognizing that when it comes to water that no one government can go it alone, the Mackenzie Basin Transboundary Waters Agreement (MBTWA) was signed in July 1997 by Canada, NWT, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Saskatchewan. This agreement commits the six governments to work cooperatively to manage the water resources, maintain the ecological integrity of the basin, and negotiate bilateral transboundary water agreements with those who share transboundary waters, like the NWT and Alberta, who signed their agreement in 2015.
It should be noted that, to this day, 28 years since the signing, there has never been a formal meeting of the ministers responsible for the MBTWA. In my nine years as Environment minister, while I had some bilateral and trilateral meetings with other responsible ministers, I was unsuccessful in getting a full meeting. Currently, Alberta has stated two key political priorities when it comes to the water of the Mackenzie Basin that is within provincial boundaries. It wants to be able to easily divert water out of the basin to where there is not enough water, especially in the southern parts of the province. And the oil sands development companies want more water to increase production, as well as lowered standards for the treatment of the massive, toxic tailings ponds so they can release more effluent into the Athabasca River flowing north. The NWT has never supported water diversion/inter-basin transfers, nor any weakening of the standards of treatment and reclamation of toxic tailings pond effluent before it can be returned to the aquatic ecosystem. During the transboundary water negotiations with Alberta, the compromise reached with Alberta was that any inter-basin transfer could only be done by way of a formal motion in the Alberta Legislature, to allow for debate and sober second thought. Now Alberta wants that clause revoked so that inter-basin transfers can be done by the stroke of the ministerial pen. It also wants a weakening of the treatment and reclamation standards of the highly-toxic tailings pond effluent. Alberta would prefer not to act unilaterally because of the extremely poor political optics. Alberta will be pressuring the NWT to concur with their demands. However, this Alberta government has shown no hesitation to invoke Section 33, “the notwithstanding clause” of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to override the rights and freedoms of their own citizens, as evidenced by the recent teachers strikes. Other Section 33 invocations are already in the works. What this specific issue means for the NWT, if Alberta proceeds unilaterally, is that Alberta will divert clean, north-flowing water south, then the already polluted water that is flowing north will be burdened with increased amounts of toxic effluent dumped into the Athabasca River. There will be much less water to dilute the effluent. British Columbia is also sending signals questioning the value of the MBTWA. All this at a time when water security, from the watershed to the kitchen tap, has become a priority of governments in Canada and Canadians everywhere.
What is to be done to prevent the unravelling of the shared water governance agreement in the Mackenzie Basin at a time when collaboration and co-governance are the only way we will collectively survive the chaotic, turbulent times we are in? Twenty-eight years of collective political neglect of the MBTWA has brought us to this precarious point that is fraught with danger to us all. It is time for proactive political leadership by the signatories of the agreement — spearheaded by Canada and the NWT — to gather round the Mackenzie River Basin Board table to cooperatively manage the water resources, maintain the ecological integrity of the basin and finish negotiating the transboundary water agreements within the basin. The MBTWA is a progressive agreement but only if it is used by the political leaders. We are in crisis. This is a political rescue mission. Failure due to political apathy and neglect is not an option, nor acceptable.
Michael Miltenberger is a FLOW member and former longtime MLA and cabinet minister residing in Fort Smith.