Thank you.
Good afternoon, committee members. My name is Deborah Carlson. I’m a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law. We are a not-for-profit law organization based in Vancouver, on the Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. That’s where I am calling from today.
Thank you for the invitation to speak to this committee about freshwater rights. I will share some reflections on freshwater rights and then, based on the work we're doing in the lower Fraser region, I'll offer two recommendations for your consideration.
One place we see freshwater rights, which aligns with what you've already heard, is in laws like the B.C. Water Sustainability Act. It contains a water allocation regime. Under this law, water users obtain water licences. This is used to manage conflict over a scarce resource. Last year, as B.C. experienced yet another hot, dry summer, temporary orders were needed to restrict water use in order to protect fish. In a changing climate with more summer droughts, we're only going to see more instances where we really bump into water scarcity as a reality.
Legal rights to water, as you have heard, can also deal with water quality. Only Quebec has legislated a human right to clean water, but as you know, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act was amended last year to include a human right to a healthy environment. Of course, there can also be rights of nature and rights for nature. I believe you've heard about that as well.
This is water through the lens of rights, but at their heart these examples reflect our relationships with freshwater as governed by federal and provincial law. It's scarce, but we're allowed to be demanding consumers whose activities then need to be restrained. This is only happening at the point of crisis.
Second, our laws allow us to engage in activities that introduce harmful substances into fresh water. Despite advances in technology, there are still problems with well-known contaminants as well as new ones. We're not managing the cumulative effects. This is another important point. The tools we rely on are a variety of federal and provincial laws. They're not particularly coordinated to manage these relationships, so we do this in a very fragmented way. Again, as you've heard, there are clear opportunities to have more holistic and reciprocal relationships with water. We need them, especially in a changing climate. We can look towards indigenous laws and practices, because they have supported sustainable and adaptable ways of living on the landscape for millennia and millennia.
I have two quick recommendations about the Canada water agency linked to the work we're doing in supporting in the lower Fraser region. The first is to ensure that the Canada water agency is fully resourced and has the support required across federal departments to achieve its stated mandate to act as a point of coordination for federal programs and activities, including funding that affects fresh water.
In the lower Fraser, there is a salmon crisis. The science is clear that freshwater habitat protection and restoration, including fish passage, is essential. At the same time, this densely populated region, Canada’s Pacific gateway, is exposed to catastrophic flood risks. It needs to move on from outdated and ineffective flood control practices. There are win-win-wins to be had from adopting integrated flood plain management strategies. They are intimately connected with managing our freshwater relationships.
We're part of the Lower Fraser Floodplains Coalition, a group that's working with the first nations-led Emergency Planning Secretariat to lead a new collaborative process with first nations, local governments, farmers and the B.C. government to plan for flood plain resilience, including nature-based infrastructure. We are seeing success through dialogue and relationship building. Emerging ideas for flood risk reduction and resilience involve transportation, agriculture, fish habitat restoration, addressing historical inequities with first nations, on-the-ground implementation of UNDRIP and so on.
This work touches many federal departments—Environment and Climate Change Canada, Infrastructure, Fisheries, Public Safety Canada, Natural Resources Canada and so on—and it would be so helpful if they were all rowing in the same boat. We do see a valuable role for the agency in coordinating and perhaps catalyzing freshwater objectives across federal departments, looking at both regulation and funding programs.
A second recommendation is to ensure that the proposed freshwater data strategy supports regional priorities and needs for freshwater ecosystem management, restoration and resilience building. This strategy should be co-developed with indigenous peoples, such as the first nations in the Fraser River region. The data strategy should include indicators that can be used to evaluate trends. Capacity and connections with academic institutions in the regions should also be promoted. The first nations principles of ownership, control, access and possession should be followed.
In closing, we have a lot of opportunity to manage our relationships with water better. It means managing ourselves in the landscape. We need to do this in a more holistic and integrated way, and we have ideas and opportunities to do so.
Thank you.