* The deadline has been extended to April 12th, 2013.
Time is running out for Albertans to provide feedback on the government of Alberta’s “Water Conversation”, including proposed changes to Alberta’s water allocation system. Despite our concerns with the “Water Conversation” process, Our Water Is Not For Sale feels 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.
Your input could have a major impact! As of the end of February, the government has apparently heard from only a few hundred Albertans about this important issue, so taking a few minutes now to engage in the process and encourage your networks to do the same could have a major impact. The government has promised to release a “what we heard” document at the end of the process, and we want to ensure that Albertans opposition to water markets are heard loud and clear.
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 management (allocation) element. Other water policy organizations in the province may have suggestions for the other elements of the process.
What You Can Do
Raise concerns about the process
Provide feedback on the Water Conversation to the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Diana McQeen, as well as to Opposition Party Critics. We’ve provided some suggested speaking points below.
Send individual emails to:
Water Conversation feedback: ESRD.Info-Centre@gov.ab.ca
Environment Minister Diana McQueen: ESRD.Minister@gov.ab.ca
Wildrose Environment Critic Joe Anglin: rimbey.rockymountainhouse.sundre@assembly.ab.ca
NDP Environment Critic Rachel Notley: edmonton.strathcona@assembly.ab.ca
Liberal Environment Critic Laurie Blakeman: edmonton.centre@assembly.ab.ca
Please BCC info@ourwaterisnotforsale.com
Twitter: Twitter works too! Please tweet your concerns to @DianaMcQueenMLA or @AENV_SRD
Telephone: Finally, you may phone-in your feedback on the Water Conversation to 1-800-310-3773.
Speaking Points:
- I am disappointed that the online portion of long-promised consultations on water management in the province amounts to just two questions on a survey
- I feel like the questions are leading and don’t provide an opportunity to provide meaningful input
- The questions are so vague and general that it is difficult to determine what is being proposed or to decide whether or not I support specific strategie
- I am opposed to an expanded water market to determine allocation decisions in Alberta
- I would like to see a consultation process that meaningfully presents a range of options to improve water allocation system in the province
Respond Online
Respond to the Ministry of Environment’s online workbook survey. Specifically, for the 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:
- It is impossible to answer question 13 since it asks me to indicate my support for a number of very different strategies
- 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 I support specific strategies
- I need more detail about the strategies being proposed before I can determine my 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?)
- I am opposed to an expanded water market to determine allocation decisions in Alberta
- I am disappointed that the online portion of long-promised consultations on water management in the province amounts to just two questions on a survey
- I 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
Participate in a community session
There are still a handful of community sessions left. If you are in one of these few cities, 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 above, 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 info@ourwaterisnotforsale.com.
Background Information
Download the OWINFS flyer.
The Government of Alberta is conducating 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.
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. Read the media release from a number of organizations working on water in the province critiquing the process.
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. Read the reports.
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.”
Our Principles
Our Water Is Not For Sale believes the following principles should guide water allocation and water policy in the province:
- 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.
- 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 over-allocated basins must require a holdback to return water to the river.
- 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.
- Not all water use is the same. There must be a system of priority for water use that guides allocation decisions.
- 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.
- Water policy and management, including the establishment of minimum instream flow needs, should be based on science.