'Water Conversation' session in Edmonton suggestions for participation

[Council of Canadians Edmonton]

Hello Edmonton Council of Canadians supporters

As you may have heard, the Government of Alberta has announced a province-wide “Water Conversation” to ask Albertans for feedback on the future of water in the province, including proposed changes to Alberta’s water allocation system. In the fall of 2008 the government announced it was considering updating the province’s Water Act and released three reports in the fall of 2009 that indicated the government was considering moving toward a provincial water market. You can read background about the allocation review here.

The Council of Canadians has been working on the water allocation review process as part of the Our Water Is Not For Sale network, which has developed the following suggestions for how to participate in the Water Conversation process. As you'll see below, part of the conversation includes a series of public sessions. The information for the Edmonton session is:

Edmonton Community Session

Wednesday, February 27 (Doors at 5:00 pm, facilitated conversation from 5:30 - 8:00 pm)
Ramada Inn & Conf Centre
11834 Kingsway Avenue

We hope you take the time to engage on this important issue, despite the issues around the process.

Council of Canadians-Edmonton Chapter

***

 

Since launching in the summer of 2010, the Our Water Is Not For Sale network (OWINFS) has pushed the government of Alberta to “conduct broad and meaningful consultations” prior to making changes to how water in the province is allocated. While we are pleased to see that the public is finally being asked about the future of water in the province through the government’s Water Conversation, we feel that based on the Water Conversation Guide and online workbook, the process is neither broad nor meaningful. You can read the media release from a number of organizations working on water in the province critiquing the process here.

 

Are water markets still on the table?

 

The Water Conversation Guide clearly shows that an expanded and deregulated water market is still the focus of the government’s approach to water allocation in the province.

 

Page 32 of the guide refers to stakeholder initiatives including the Minister’s Advisory Group, the Alberta Water Council and Alberta Innovates (formerly the Alberta Water Research Institute), which have “suggested various mechanisms for achieving water management optimization in Alberta.” The recommendations from these three groups, released in November 2009, all focus on the expansion of water markets in the province. You can read the reports here.

 

Further down on the same page, there is a section on “Facilitating water allocation transfers,” which is simply another way of saying “water market.” While the guide and survey refer to making changes that “enable licence users to share water with other users,” it is clear that what is being referred to is changes to make it easier for licence holders to sell all or part of their allocation to another user.

 

On page 35, the government states that it is considering legislative changes, including “making improvements to the allocation transfer system.”

 

We believe the following principles should guide water allocation and water policy in the province:

a)      The market should not decide who has access to water, and licence holders should not be able to profit from licences they were granted in the past for free.

b)      Water transfers should not result in an overall increase in water use. Only volumes based on reductions in water use resulting from conservation measures should be allowed, and any transfers in overallocated basins must require a holdback to return water to the river.

c)       Water regulation and allocation must be democratic and transparent. It must be managed by bodies that are accountable to the public, such as government or First Nations management plans.

d)      Not all water use is the same. There must be a system of priority for water use that guides allocation decisions.

e)      Indigenous rights, and the voices of Alberta’s diverse First Nations and Métis communities, must be an essential part of processes regarding decision-making about water.

f)       Water policy and management, including the establishment of minimum instream flow needs, should be based on science.

 

What you can do

 

Despite our concerns with the Water Conversation process, we feel it is important for the public to participate in order to ensure that Albertans’ concerns about the water allocation system and the potential of expanded water markets in the province is heard in the process. Below are suggestions from OWINFS on how you can best attempt to make your concerns heard. Please note that the Water Conversation includes four topics – management (allocation) of Alberta’s water resources, the health lakes, drinking water and wastewater systems, and hydraulic fracturing – but OWINFS is focused only on the water allocation element. Other water policy organizations in the province may have suggestions for the other elements of the process.

 

1.       Raise concerns about the process

 

Provide feedback on the Water Conversation to the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Minister Diana McQeen and opposition party critics about the process.

 

Email:

Water Conversation feedback: ESRD.Inf...@gov.ab.ca

Environment Minister Diana McQueen: ESRD.M...@gov.ab.ca

Wildrose Environment Critic Joe Anglin: rimbey.rockymoun...@assembly.ab.ca

NDP Environment Critic Rachel Notley: edmonton....@assembly.ab.ca

Liberal Environment Critic Laurie Blakeman: edmonto...@assembly.ab.ca

Please bcc in...@ourwaterisnotforsale.com

 

If you use Twitter, you can also tweet your concerns to @DianaMcQueenMLA or @AENV_SRD

 

You can also provide feedback on the Water Conversation by calling 1-800-310-3773.

 

Points you may want to raise:

·         That you are disappointed that the online portion of long-promised consultations on water management in the province amounts to just two questions on a survey

·         That the questions are leading and don’t provide an opportunity to provide meaningful input

·         That the questions are so vague and general that it is difficult to determine what is being proposed or to decide whether or not you support specific strategies

·         That you are opposed to an expanded water market to determine allocation decisions in Alberta

·         That you would like to see a consultation process that meaningfully presents a range of options to improve water allocation system in the province

 

2.       Responses to the online workbook survey

 

For the online workbook survey questions on water management (questions 13 and 14), we suggest the following:

 

a)      Respond ‘Don’t Know’ to question 13 and the six sub-questions in question 14

b)      For the open-ended question 15 (Additional feedback on proposed approaches to addressing water issues), share your concerns about the questions. There appears to be ample space to outline your concerns. Points you may want to raise include:

·         That it is impossible to answer question 13 since it asks you to indicate your support for a number of very different strategies

·         That the strategies in question 14 are so vague, leading, or general that it is impossible to determine what is being proposed or to decide whether or not you support specific strategies

·         That you need more detail about the strategies being proposed before you can determine your level of support (For example, does “Making it easier for water licence holders to share their water allocation with other users” mean they will be able to sell all or some of their allocation for profit? Will they be able to sell any portion of their allocation, even amounts that they haven’t historically used, or only amounts realized through water conservation measures? Will a mandatory holdback on transfers be in place to return water to rivers? What government oversight will there be over such transfers?)

·         That you are opposed to an expanded water market to determine allocation decisions in Alberta

·         That you are disappointed that the online portion of long-promised consultations on water management in the province amounts to just two questions on a survey

·         That you would like to see a consultation process that meaningfully presents a range of options to improve water allocation system in the province before any changes to legislation are made

 

3.       Participate in a community session

 

The Water Conversation is hosting community sessions in 20 locations in Alberta. While there are not specific details of the agenda for the sessions beyond that a “facilitated conversation” will happen from 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm, we assume they will be similar in format to the online survey.

 

We encourage you to attend these sessions to ensure that the process clearly reflects that Albertans are opposed to the expansion of water markets in Alberta. Go and raise the same concerns outlined above, indicate your support for the six principles we’ve outlined, and ask clear questions about whether the government intends to allow licence holders to profit from selling all or a portion of their water allocation to other users.

 

We would appreciate a short report-back about any session you attend, what concerns were raised and what the response was to in...@ourwaterisnotforsale.com.