National Water Strategy

Ottawa, 7 December 2010—Environment Canada is not adequately monitoring Canada’s fresh water resources, says Scott Vaughan, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, in his Report tabled today in the House of Commons.

“Environment Canada has been running the federal government’s water monitoring programs for 40 years,” said Mr. Vaughan. “Yet it has not taken such basic steps as defining its responsibilities and responding to the threats to Canada’s water resources that it has identified.”... Read more »

As the "human footprint" of development, urban sprawl and massive farming continues unabated — while crucial wetlands keep disappearing — the impact on Alberta lakes and rivers is becoming increasingly devastating.

That message from Dr. Michael Sullivan, a respected biologist, who told a captive audience in Fort Assiniboine Nov. 10 how fish populations and numerous lakes and rivers in Alberta are being ravaged and destroyed by decades of neglect and abuse.

Without a concerted community effort to restore wetland areas, policies to ensure development won’t directly impact watercourses and a strategy to ensure farmers are given financial incentives to get involved in watercourse management practices, the problem is only going to get worse, said Sullivan.
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"With even more dead ducks just days after Syncrude was given a slap on the wrist with a petty $3 million fine that they can recover in less than half a day's net profit, it is glaringly obvious that the 170 square kilometers of toxic tailing lakes need to be cleaned up and phased out with a moratorium put in place. The governments of Alberta and Canada need to grow a conscience and be held accountable for protecting the public image of the tar sands industry by failing to enforce weak environmental regulations and continuing to maintain a 100% approval rating and promoting tar sands development. The devastation to the Mackenzie and Athabasca River Delta, the poisoning of Indigenous and downstream communities, and the continuous deaths and contamination of birds and wildlife in the region constitute an ongoing injustice. Denying the Total Joslyn North Mine Project would be the first step of such accountability.... Read more »

As the world struggles with increasing water problems, governments need to listen to the traditional wisdom of aboriginal people, Grand Chief Ed John, of the First Nations Summit, told an international conference at the University of Victoria yesterday.

Additional Excerpt:

Meanwhile, the Sierra Club Canada and UVic's POLIS Water Sustainability Project are launching a Canada-wide campaign to
encourage communities to reduce their water footprints. Regional water summits will be held across the country to help communities take action on water conservation.