Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Kat Hartwig. I'm the executive director and co-founder of Living Lakes Canada.
I've worked in the NGO environmental sector for 33 years, with the last 20 focused on freshwater stewardship. I live in Brisco, B.C., which is the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc nations.
Living Lakes Canada programs include education, research, monitoring, data collection, restoration and policy development for the long-term protection of lakes, rivers, wetlands, aquifers and watersheds in Canada. We work to help people address the impacts of climate change on water quality and quantity and biodiversity in their respective communities.
Joining us today are my colleagues Paige Thurston, manager of our Columbia Basin hydrometric and groundwater program, and Georgia Peck, manager of all of our lakes monitoring programs across Canada. They are here to help answer your questions.
We will provide you with three recommendations for your study on fresh water based on our experience from the last two decades working in freshwater research, monitoring and data.
Our work originates in the Canadian Columbia Basin, which lies between two mountain ranges, the Rockies and the Purcells. This area is considered to be the water towers for our food-growing belts in southeastern B.C., the prairie provinces and parts of the U.S. We are currently experiencing extreme drought conditions from last year with no expected relief and likely worsening conditions this year. The cycle of drought, forest fires and flooding has become our new norm.
Recommendations for the study on fresh water are as follows.
Recommendation one is to include the Canadian Columbia Basin, a watershed of national significance, in the freshwater action plan, with designated funding via the Canada water agency, or other funding mechanisms, that will support the monitoring and data collection needed to inform water allocation and community adaptation options.
Recommendation two is that any coordinated water and climate monitoring networks being implemented in other river basins be built upon existing successful regional efforts, such as the Columbia Basin water monitoring framework and open source data hub or other templates. It is more cost-effective and faster to replicate best practices of successful and tested methodologies from one region to another.
Recommendation three is to advance indigenous knowledge and data sovereignty through water stewardship. Supporting indigenous initiatives for water stewardship then, de facto, land stewardship provides us all the opportunity to learn how applied reconciliation can help us shift into new paradigms that provide action and care for many generations to come.
In closing, I'm going to reiterate what you already know. The Canadian Climate Institute issued a report in 2022 stating that by 2025, over 90% of climate impacts and disasters will involve water and will slow down Canada's economic growth by $25 billion annually.
We commend the efforts for this study on fresh water. We also urge you to rapidly accelerate non-partisan efforts towards water and food security for both indigenous and non-indigenous people living in our amazing country. In doing so, you have the opportunity to become international leaders in freshwater stewardship.
Thank you for your efforts in these very challenging times.