Award-winning author; Chair of Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health; and senior policy advisor, Bob Sandford, joins us again for a fascinating discussion with the much celebrated Dr. John Pomeroy, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change; Associate Director, Global Institute for Water Security; and Director of the Global Water Futures Program.
The effects of climate change are magnified in Canada’s North and other cold regions where global warming is changing landscapes, ecosystems and the water environments faster than any other region on Earth. The goal of the Global Water Futures Program is to forecast water futures and use leading edge science to deliver risk management solutions. Through this research, Canada will become a global leader in water science in cold regions and will address the strategic needs for the Canadian economy in adapting to change and managing risks associated with uncertain water futures and extreme events.
This fascinating talk about water and the future of water by these leading experts is not to be missed!
See Part 2 and additional Q&A here.
Creative Solutions for a New World
A Call for Enhanced Water Security Cooperation in Canada
Let’s Shift This!
One of the main ways we can help create the change we want to see, is to send letters and call our elected officials. The more people who do this, the better.
To simplify this process, we have drafted this letter which we invite you to cut, paste and share by email and on social media.
As well, as an added convenience, we have supplied the email addresses and phone numbers for the key people who need to know that there is public support for a new ecosystem management.
Please send this letter to everyone noted on this list, plus find your MLA with the link provided and add them too. Please cc info@creativelyunited.org. We will follow up with these elected officials to remind them there is public support. Having your voice, and that of your family, friends, co-workers and networks, is what we need to shift this. It will only take a minute or two of your time!
Anything is possible, let’s make this happen!
The Letter:
Subject: A Call for Enhanced Water Security Cooperation in Canada
Please support the creation of a Canada Water Agency to:
1. Create new analytical models for reducing the impacts of rapidly changing hydrology on our economy, environment and social systems
2. Develop a new national flood forecasting system to bring the best science to predicting and alleviating flood risk across Canada
Rationale
We start with a question. Why does every climate disaster movie begin with science being ignored? Incontrovertible scientific evidence now clearly shows that the global water cycle, the planet’s climate patterns and the Earth system are intimately linked and rapidly changing. We are suffering through a pandemic but the future cost of the changing water cycles will create greater and longer lasting damage to the economy.
The hydrology of this country is changing. Our glaciers, which represent “water in the bank,” in the West are on the way out. Because our planet’s atmosphere has warmed, the global water cycle has accelerated undermining the relative stability of the weather we have come to expect. Precipitation patterns are changing. Rainfall events are lasting longer, becoming more intense, increasing the frequency of flooding. Heatwaves are more common and wildfire more frequent and dangerous.
We cannot use the pandemic as an excuse to roll back water quality regulations, reduce monitoring, reporting and enforcement. Regulations provide a protection for all of us. They need to be reinstated and where necessary, strengthened.
The change in the hydrological cycle has been so substantial that the statistical analyses we used to rely upon to establish design standards for our subdivisions, roads, bridge and other infrastructure are no longer valid. In this changed world the old ways of managing water by way of chopping up river basins into separate jurisdictions is not only outdated, but a danger to public safety.
Deterioration of water quality in the lakes and ground waters of Central and Eastern Canada is also a growing concern. Protecting public health and the environment is becoming critical.
The status quo is not an option. We need new ways of managing water based on models which respond to future changes in hydrology. Researchers in Canada are on the threshold of creating such models that will be able to predict and forecast both floods and droughts on a national and continental basis. .
We also need a national flood forecasting system. Canada is the only G-7 country without one. Developing the modelling and forecasting capacity on a national basis will require the creation of a Canada Water Agency.
Given federal government support, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to create such an Agency right now.
It is time for Canadians to realize water is going to become more precious that we can even begin to imagine in the future, and to act accordingly. We are at a transformational moment in our history. We can choose our future; now is the time to do so.
Signed:
(Your name here)
Email this letter and/or phone:
Premier John Horgan
premier@gov.bc.ca
1-250-387-1715
Fin Donnelly, MLA Coquitlam-Burke Mountain
fin.donnelly.MLA@leg.bc.ca
1-604-942-5020
Hon. Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Natural Resources
seamus.oregan@parl.gc.ca
1-613-992-0927
Hon. Nathan Cullen, Minister of State for Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Stikine
nathan.cullen.MLA@leg.bc.ca
1-250-842-6338
Hon. George Heyman, Environment and Climate Change Strategy
ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca
1-250-387-1187
Hon. Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
FLNR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
1-250-387-6240
Hon. Ravi Kohlon, Minister for Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation
JTT.Minister@gov.bc.ca
1-250-356-2771
Hon. Murray Rankin, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation
IRR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
1-250-953-4844
Hon. Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister Wilkinson
Terry.Duguid@parl.gc.ca
1-613-995-7517
Hon. Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
Bernadette.Jordan@parl.gc.ca
1-613-996-0877
Hon. Marie -Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Marie-Claude.Bibeau@parl.gc.ca
1-613-995-2024
Also, please send a copy to your MLA. Find your MLA’s email here:
https://www.leg.bc.ca/learn-about-us/members
Please be sure to cc: info@creativelyunited.org when sending your letter.
Thank YOU!
Additional Q&A
Q. Has there been any discussion between the provinces and the federal government on the proposed Canada Water Agency?
A. I cannot answer this.
Q. Does GWF interact with, or take account of, North American Water and Power Alliance?
A. No.
Q. Surely we need to urgently change laws which enable human altering of natural ecosystems and wetlands. How do we do that given the pressures that exists froom fossil fuel industries and industrial agriculture, as well as others? Do you see any hope for real change?
A. There is a proposal from several NGOs to update the existing Canada Water Act in parallel with a co-drafting effort in First Nation governments and in the meantime to more fully use the existing CWA. The Parliamentary committee on environment and sustainability is currently studying a renewed federal water policy.
Q. These data and images are powerful. Are you currently getting any traction with the Canadian government that seems to be informing fossil fuel extraction policies?
A. Yes, there appears to be interest from the federal government in mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and in dealing with the environmental and social impacts of climate change as evidenced by strong speech by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change at COP25 in Madrid. The federal proposal to develop the Canada Water Agency is further evidence of such interest.
Q. Is there any interest by the Prairie provinces to restore wetlands? Healthy wetlands provide a range of values for carbon storage, wildlife and flood management. We need to restore our natural assets.
A. Yes, all provinces have tightened up their management of wetlands and require evaluations before drainage is permitted. Some have restricted drainage. However, more needs to be done and there are some ineffective policies out there that would swap wetland for upland habitat – this makes no hydrological sense at all as wetlands hold back nutrients and floodwaters, but uplands convey them to streams very effectively.