Yes, exactly.
The most recent UNESCO report in 2023 mentioned that water use conflicts between agricultural and urban areas will become increasingly frequent and, unfortunately, Canada will not be spared from those conflicts either.
Cases of water scarcity have already been richly documented across the country. Just this morning, Canada's National Observer's website mentioned the case of Alberta.
As a representative of an organization that works for civil rights, today I would like to highlight the four problems that we regularly face regarding the advancement of responsible water management.
First, there is a knowledge gap problem. Our organization is mostly in Quebec, but we do a lot of work with other organizations across the country. It is very difficult to harmonize data from one province to another and to have enough data on water quality, use and renewal.
Second, the levels of government delegate jurisdictions to each other, that is, from municipalities to provinces and from provinces to the federal government, and there is a misalignment in this delegation of powers. We are seeing a lack of leadership by the Government of Canada to advance the objectives it has set with the international community and the provinces, because there is a lack of control and power over the jurisdictions that are granted at the provincial level.
Third, there is the whole matter of water issues that don't come under any jurisdiction. We often face a lack of accountability on the part of ministers and elected officials. In fact, the municipalities are passing the buck to the province, and the province is passing the buck to the feds. I could name a case here that maybe some of you have heard of. This is the case of the community of Kanesatake, north of Montreal. For a number of years now, there has been a game of ping-pong between these various jurisdictions.
Lastly, we are often faced with another problem: federal entities, located in the provinces, emit contaminants into the environment, either in the water, in the air or in the soil. They work on their own, that is to say that there is a poor link with provincial authorities. We can think of ports, airports and indigenous communities, which depend a great deal on federal jurisdiction when it comes to the supply of drinking water, among other things. As a general rule, drinking water is a provincial jurisdiction, except in indigenous communities. So there could be better harmonization in that regard. There is also the hazardous waste landfill being built on the Ottawa River, which is a federal entity. This project will have adverse consequences, major environmental impacts on water, and the provinces will have to manage those impacts.
I would now like to present two potential solutions that we are proposing.
First of all, the announcement of the Canada water agency was obviously very well received by our organization, because we see it as a model of leadership for the Canadian government. We see this agency as a model water observatory, whose mandate would be to compile information, to put in place knowledge acquisition programs, to build capacity in the provinces, and to harmonize all the programs that are set up in those provinces to enable them to go further. We are proposing measures to monitor the achievement of targets, a responsibility that would be shared across Canada. There are 16 sustainable development goals, and water is one of them, including the protection of aquatic environments, to which Canada is committed. Objectives must be put in place, Canada-wide targets must be met and measures must be put in place to monitor the achievement of those objectives. That could very well be translated into an observatory model through the Canada Water Agency. It could also be a type of governance. We have several models in mind, including the Forum d'action sur l'eau, which exists in Quebec. It's a very inclusive governance model for all representatives of society.
Our organization is a representative organization of citizen rights. We also advocate the establishment of a pan-Canadian network of organizations in society that would, for the most part, make it possible to put in place a well-deployed education and training network for the entire population, as well as better communication between the various governments and citizen communities. This network would also make it possible to strengthen and support Canada's progress in achieving its objectives at the provincial level, because we know that citizens have a role to play in political representation with their local elected representatives.
That concludes our presentation, Mr. Chair.