Water Haller: What do "we" want from a Canada Water Agency?
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By "we," I mean the Canadian water utility sector. After the last election the Prime Minister gave a mandate to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to create a new Canada Water Agency. There wasn’t a lot of direction beyond that other than to work with the Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Fisheries. So what does that mean? What might be the scope and mandate of such an agency?
For years, the CWWA has supported a more coordinated focus by the federal government on water. We have regularly noted the “water” issues affecting local municipalities are addressed by at least a dozen ministries and sub-agencies. We had promoted the concept of a Parliamentary Secretary responsible for all things water-related so that he/she could facilitate inter-departmental communication and coordination. I even went so far as to recommend Francis Scarpaleggia – a long-time water champion and friend of CWWA. But this agency offers tremendous opportunity.
CWWA has been invited to participate in a coalition of NGOs, environmental groups and academics to support the development of this agency, and to recommend what this agency might do. I thanked the coalition for reaching out to include us as, far too often, meetings are held with federal bureaucrats, academics and interest groups to discuss what utilities should or should not do – but without a voice for the municipal water sector in the room. So we are happy to be part of this early dialogue. But that said, we need to make sure we provide input from our utility sector directly to those developing the agency.
As noted above, I would hope that this agency facilitates that communication between all federal ministries and agencies that can lead to more coordinated and collaborative efforts. This agency itself can likely discover where the gaps are. Then our primary goal is to make sure that we [SH1] are well-represented at that table, or to quote Hamilton, “The Room Where It Happened”. We have made this message to the minister already and will continue to offer our frontline knowledge and expertise – mostly our practical knowledge on the ability to implement proposals.
WHAT ELSE DO WE EXPECT FROM THIS AGENCY? The federal government has created an online tool to engage the public. You can participate individually here:
https://www.placespeak.com/topic/6321
But we do need to provide an industry sector response. Please let us know here at CWWA what you think – where are the gaps? What should the CWA address?
I expect we will follow up sooner with a Communique to you on this topic with more specific questions, but I always welcome your input.
Two quick notes:
Congrats to our good friend Barry Orr for winning the prestigious Collection Systems Award from WEF for his tireless work on non-flushable wipes.
As soon as I finish writing this (Aug 28th), my daughter and I will run to the Prescott Beach for a swim in the St. Lawrence River. This will be 75 straight days (since June 15th) that we have swum (swam?) in a natural river or lake (St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, Mississippi River, Ottawa River, Quyon River, Petit Lac Cayamant). But it’s getting colder each day!!!!
Barry Orr!
75 days!
Robert
