Environment Committee on Feb. 15th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Good morning, everyone.

I think everyone is present, whether by video conference or in person.

I would like to welcome Mr. Boulerice, who is replacing Ms. Collins and is joining us by video conference, and Mr. Maloney, who is replacing Mr. Ali.

I won't read the names of all the witnesses now, but I will introduce them when it is their turn to speak. This afternoon, our time is precious, as a vote will be held at 5:45 p.m.

We will now give the floor to Chandra Madramootoo, distinguished James McGill professor, from McGill University.

Professor Madramootoo, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Chandra Madramootoo, Distinguished James McGill Professor, McGill University, As an Individual]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you.

Thank you also for underscoring the significant role that water and agriculture can play in shaping Canada's foreign policy.

My name is Chandra Madramootoo. I am a distinguished James McGill professor at McGill University.

I have been fortunate to undertake an array of projects on water, agriculture and the environment over four decades in several regions of the world. I will focus my intervention on three interlinked areas: water and food security; peatlands and wetlands protection; and peace and security in transboundary basins.

Agriculture uses about 70% of global water withdrawals. In water-stressed basins, such as the Aral Sea and the Nile, agriculture consumes as much as 90% of water supplies to meet irrigation demands. Canada, at one time, was a significant donor to agricultural water projects in developing regions. Sadly, this is no longer the case, and Canada has lost its voice in major water fora dedicated to agricultural water use. Water for agriculture is critical to human livelihoods and socio-economic well-being due to the disasters around climate, rising temperatures and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

First, water security is at the nexus of climate change and national security. The effects of climatic change are already seen through a higher frequency of hydro-climatic disasters, notably floods, droughts and land degradation. The World Bank estimates that roughly 1.6 billion people live in countries with water scarcity, and that number could double in two decades.

The United Nations reports that 258 million people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity in 2022. Food insecurity is particularly severe in areas experiencing conflict, and it's exacerbated by extreme weather events. It leads to population migration and tensions in refugee camps.

Canada has an obligation to work bilaterally and regionally with humanitarian organizations and multilateral organizations to curb these conflicts induced by water and food insecurity. Canada's innovations in irrigation water management and modern technologies for the drainage of agricultural lands are world-renowned. Canada is well positioned to disseminate knowledge and provide expertise in climate-smart agriculture for food-insecure regions of sub-Saharan Africa, central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and north Africa. Interventions that build resilience to drought, water scarcity, land degradation and floods—with women at the core—ought to be promoted with our development partners.

It is essential to strengthen existing platforms, such as the global framework on water scarcity in agriculture, WASAG, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Technical leadership from Canada is urgently sought in the WASAG, aimed at the world's arid and semi-arid regions where the poorest of the poor reside.

Second, one-third of global peatlands are in Canada, covering about 12% of the country's land area. They store about 150 billion tonnes of carbon, thus mitigating climate change. Canada's wetlands, covering some 13% of the terrestrial area, are close to one-quarter of the world's remaining wetlands, and together with peatlands, support a rich biodiversity.

However, in many parts of the world, these ecosystems are being drained at alarming rates for economic development and are becoming sources of carbon dioxide and methane. By curtailing unwarranted drainage, altering the hydrologic cycle and implementing large-scale wetlands restoration, we can slow carbon dioxide and methane emissions and mitigate the impacts of temperature rises.

Canada is a leader in the development and deployment of environmental monitoring technologies. It is recommended that Canada establish an international observatory to advise on wetlands restoration, including how to balance the hydrology, soils and gas fluxes to mitigate climate change.

Finally, transboundary waters account for 60% of the world's freshwater flows, with some 153 countries having territory within at least one of the 286 transboundary basins. Many of these basins are in regions of water scarcity, food insecurity, environmental degradation and political conflict. The Nile, the Zambezi, the Aral Sea and the Amazon are just a few.

Competing economic interests and rising nationalism are at the heart of transboundary conflicts—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you, Dr. Madramootoo.

We're going to have to stop you there. There will be many questions, so you'll be able to raise those points you want raise in response to questions.

From FLOW, the Forum for Leadership on Water, we have Ms. Emily Hines and Mr. Robert Sandford.

Mr. Sandford, I believe you'll be giving the opening remarks. You have five minutes.

[Robert Sandford, Senior Government Relations Liaison, Global Climate Emergency Response, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Forum for Leadership on Water]

Please allow me to extend the very best wishes of the United Nations to all.

I would like to begin by observing that water is already a pillar of Canada's foreign policy and has been so for more than a century. Since the signing of the boundary waters treaty in 1909, Canada and the United States have shown the entire world how water can be peaceably shared through co-operation.

Even in this relationship, we should be reminded that no pillar can stand indefinitely without being carefully maintained. As the U.S. becomes more crowded and hotter, water has come to the fore in terms of both domestic and foreign policy there. The Pentagon has already identified the declining reliability and quality of water supplies across the country as a national security threat. The U.S. has, at the same time, identified water as a potential pillar of its own foreign policy.

As Canada contemplates extending the benefit of what it knows about and how it governs water as a pillar of its broader foreign policy, it should see its southern neighbour as a simulacrum of the threats and opportunities with which it will be presented as it engages with potential beneficiaries of Canada's expertise abroad. Canada should also be careful to see the needs of other nations reflected in its own immediate challenges in managing water at a time of rapid loss of hydrologic stability and climate emergency globally. In this regard, Canada has much to offer the rest of the world.

In 2018, I was the lead author of a United Nations University report on Canada's capacity to shine on the world stage by assisting other countries in need of help to achieve water and water-related climate targets of the UN's sustainable development goals.

The conclusion of that report was that, if carefully deployed through measured foreign policy and skilful diplomacy, helping the rest of the world address the global water crisis could re-establish Canada's reputation on the world stage in a manner as positive and enduring as how peacekeeping once defined our national identity abroad. More importantly, by making water a pillar of its foreign policy, Canada has the opportunity to play a key role in taking the global water crisis problem to the UN Security Council to urge the UN and its member states to develop a serious global water action agenda to address the growing human security challenges, especially as they now immediately relate to agriculture and food security.

The 2018 report made it clear that all the pieces that would be needed to make water an effective pillar of foreign policy were already in place. The educational components were there, as were the research capacity, the technological innovation and the critical long-term experience in water governance, especially as it now relates to ongoing reconciliation with indigenous peoples.

All that is needed, we reported, is a unifying agent to marshal all of these capacities together and point them in the same outbound direction. In other words, harnessing and fully realizing the Canadian water sector's substantial outbound capacity will need federal government coordination and support.

The creation of a Canada water agency could potentially be one means by which Canada advances water policy at home, while at the same time significantly enhancing its visibility and impact on the global water stage, but it can't do it by itself. The urgency of responding to climate change-induced acceleration of the global water cycle should be an impetus for governments at all levels, but especially federally, to work harder to coordinate and orchestrate the significant capacity in Canada's water sector for the benefit of the country and the world.

Our recommendations are to harness and coordinate the huge capacity that already exists. Use the huge potential domestic links to the UN, such as the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, to help you step more boldly onto the world stage. Then, show up on the world stage. Participate in global water awareness initiatives. Make water the theme in the Canadian pavilion at the Osaka world's fair next year. Get on board with the UN glacier year in 2025 and host the next UN global water conference.

It will not just be Canadians that will benefit from doing so. Every country to which Canada extends foreign aid in the form of shared solutions to the growing global water crisis will thank us also.

As a Canadian working for the UN, I would be very proud to see that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

We'll go to the International Joint Commission, represented by Susan Chiblow, commissioner; Merrell-Ann Phare, co-chair; and Christopher Wilkie, secretary to the commission.

Ms. Phare will deliver the opening statement.

[Merrell-Ann Phare, Commissioner, International Joint Commission (Canadian Section)]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.

On behalf of the International Joint Commission, thank you very much for inviting us. I am here as Canadian co-chair of the IJC with my colleague Dr. Susan Chiblow, Canadian commissioner. As also already noted, Dr. Christopher Wilkie is here as the Canadian section secretary.

I'm phoning you from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Treaty 1 territory and homeland of the Métis nation. I'm right in the middle of the Red River basin, which is a transboundary basin.

The IJC is a binational, impartial organization that is mandated by the governments of Canada and the U.S., through the boundary waters treaty of 1909, to work toward the prevention and resolution of disputes in shared waters along the boundary. In fact, 40% of our boundary is shared water. We work with all interested stakeholders and rights holders to recommend solutions. We have worked all across the boundary, including in Lake Ontario flooding, apportionment water quantity issues in drought regions—for example, in the Prairies—and harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

It's important for you to know that IJC commissioners, while we're appointed by the Prime Minister and President respectively, we do not take direction from our respective governments when we make decisions. We work as a commission to find consensus and identify solutions that are in the best interest of both countries. With that, though, we operate by the mandates given to us from the governments. The scope of our work is defined by our governments. Our conclusions are based on the best available science and informed by the knowledge and networks of hundreds of experts and local citizens on binational boards and committees. We develop a common binational fact base and then propose options in the best interest of shared waters. It's a model that has served us well for 115 years.

An effective relationship with the U.S. is imperative to any Canadian approach to freshwater management. An estimated 80% of the Canadian population lives in Canada-U.S. shared watersheds. These transboundary waters are also the traditional territories of many first nations, Métis and tribal nations.

We would like to talk to you about three main challenges we experience in relation to fresh water in Canada today.

The first challenge is the complex, multijurisdictional nature of freshwater management and the science needed to support good consensus-building. When we search for local solutions, the shared boundary takes precedence over political boundaries. We are unique in North America in that regard. To do this better, because collaboration is hard enough, we need collaboration around data harmonization. A key example of this is climate change and the challenges presented by climate change.

Floods, droughts and wildfires occur on a regular basis. The impacts of climate change in particular will continue to alter the flow and distribution of water resources, impacting our communities in profoundly detrimental ways, so working together is critical for resilience. We need to improve our ability to predict climate change impacts—namely, through improved flood forecasting. This needs to be done in a cross-border way, and currently it is not. This is critical for resilience.

Second, the IJC's contribution is restricted by limitations in the scope of our current activities. Our mandate varies across the border. We do not holistically consider water quantity, water quality, ecosystem health and socio-economic factors in all the lakes and rivers where we are currently active. In some places, we look at only a subset of those pieces. In addition, our remit in all transboundary basins is not universal, in that there are watersheds where we do not do anything. The IJC needs a mandate that allows us to build mutually acceptable consensus solutions all along the Canada-U.S. border, not in just some locations.

Finally, the consensus and collaboration process itself is increasingly difficult. All laws and treaties depend on their makers remaining fully committed to them to ensure that they accomplish their intended goals. It's in our national interest to prevent conflict along the border. While our countries have many issues that they deal with on a daily basis, water security is, in our view, the foundation of them all. The terms of the treaty are aimed at that specific direction, and they require domestic resolve. I would point you to your previous study in 2004, where at that time you made a recommendation to this effect.

Moving forward, we have already been asked by both parties to build partnerships with indigenous peoples along the border and to assist with that. We strongly encourage the federal government to further support IJC's efforts with indigenous peoples. We asked both parties to bolster domestic efforts in that regard.

To conclude, we have served both countries admirably in keeping the peace along the boundary where water is shared. Impartiality, shared fact-finding, robust public engagement and an ability to convene diverse interests are what make our model truly unique and effective.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

Last but not least, we have Mr. George McGraw, founder and chief executive officer of DIGDEEP.

[George McGraw, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, DIGDEEP]

Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, thank you for this invitation.

My name is George McGraw. I'm the founder and CEO of the U.S.-based water access non-profit DIGDEEP.org, and I'm a global expert on the human right to water and sanitation.

Imagine waking up and your kitchen sink has run dry. Imagine flushing your toilet and it backs up into your yard, making your family sick. To prepare dinner, you first have to travel miles to haul water.

Over the past 60 years, high-income countries led by Canada and the U.S. have invested more than $25 billion U.S. of foreign aid in water, sanitation and hygiene projects abroad. Between 1990 and 2015, more than 2.6 billion people gained access to improved drinking water, perhaps the single most important contribution to rising global life expectancy, but WASH insecurity remains a huge issue, and now the United Nations sustainable development goals, goal number six, calls for clean water and sanitation for all.

People from high-income countries like ours often think that this work is only needed in other places, but that's a myth. Millions of Americans and Canadians still don't have access to clean running water or a working toilet, and, with a worsening climate crisis, more families are at risk of falling into the water access gap for the first time.

In Canada, the best available data shows that members of first nations are 90 times more likely to live without running water than other Canadians. Many of those communities have faced water advisories for decades, causing significant concern for health risks and long-term prosperity, and the number of waterborne diseases in first nations communities is 26 times higher than the national average.

Canada isn't alone in this. More than two million people in the United States are similarly impacted. Our indigenous households here are 19 times more likely than white households to lack running water, and Black and Latino households in the U.S. are twice as likely. Similar challenges exist in Australia and the European Union.

There is a clear and common thread here. In high-income countries, indigenous people, communities of colour, immigrants, the unhoused, rural families and other disadvantaged groups live inside an invisible water access gap, largely forgotten by their governments. They experience higher rates of mortality, physical and mental health issues and economic inequality. In the U.S., our research demonstrates that the water access gap costs our economy nearly $8.6 billion U.S. every year. That's nearly $16,000 per household, in many cases more than a family earns in a year. One could easily guess that the impact on families inside Canada's water access gap is similar.

Fortunately, our research also shows that, for every dollar we invest in closing the water access gap, we get a five-dollar return on that investment, but the crucial point is this: Access to water and sanitation is a basic human right and, for millions of people in the U.S. and Canada, two of the wealthiest democracies on earth, that right is not being adequately protected.

I've spent my career working alongside other activists to defend the right to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water and sanitation services, recognized as a human right by the UN General Assembly in 2010. Many high-income countries haven't enshrined this human right into their own laws, and that must change. The governments of the Northwest Territories and Quebec have paved the path to codifying the human right to water in Canada, but efforts like these must be led by national governments here in Canada, in the United States and globally.

Codifying the human right to water makes access to safe water and basic sanitation a legal entitlement rather than a commodity or a charity. It spurs the development of government programs to close the water access gap, and it gives people living in that gap, especially sovereign indigenous nations, a key advocacy tool, ensuring that they are respected and empowered as part of any decision-making process. More importantly, it ensures that your race and your zip code no longer determine whether you and your family have access to a working tap and a flushing toilet.

For now, the promise of a human right to water in Canada remains unfulfilled. I say all of this not to shame anyone for failing to meet their obligations but to inspire you. To close, I'll share a glimpse into the most incredible part of my job, that moment when someone turns on their tap for the first time.

It's impossible to describe this experience as a single thing. Sometimes it's met with tears or shouts of happiness. Other times, hordes of kids jostle around the sink waiting to be the first to touch the water when it comes out. Perhaps my most favourite of these moments, though, are the quiet ones, those few times when a person just opens the faucet, watches the water pour out and then closes the tap again without saying a word. It's a powerful reminder that access to water itself really doesn't deserve much fanfare. After all, it's our basic human right.

Thank you for the invitation and for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to the round of questions.

We'll start with Mr. Deltell for six minutes.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I am very happy to see all my colleagues again. Greetings to our colleague Adam van Koeverden, the member for Milton. I am very happy to see him in full health.

Mr. McGraw, I would like to come back to your comment about access to drinking water. As you said so well, it is essential. It's a basic human right. Everyone recognizes that.

You've rightly identified the issues that first nations are essentially facing here in this country. You did a good job of quantifying and showing that, despite the efforts that have been made, first nations are experiencing major problems with access to water.

I would like to know if any other communities in Canada are directly affected by the lack of clean drinking water and the difficulty in accessing it.

[George McGraw]

Thank you so much for that question.

By my knowledge, the best data we have is on first nations communities. Canada, like the U.S., isn't collecting comprehensive data on water access across the board, so it's difficult to pinpoint other communities of need. In the U.S., for instance, we've had to use proxies, using census data and others, to first identify these communities, but then actually send physical researchers in to look.

To give you an idea of the places where we found these communities in the U.S., they're often in poorer, more rural areas. They're often in ethnically diverse areas along the border or in formerly prosperous, now poor, economic corridors, and in what are—for us—Native American territories and reservations.

I don't have any more information for you on other impacted groups, but if the Canadian experience closely mirrors the U.S. one, like I assume it does, I would be surprised if you wouldn't find other communities in need.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

In your presentation, you mentioned that Quebec was leading the way on certain issues concerning access to drinking water and that Quebec's example should inspire the federal government.

Do you have a specific example of what Quebec is doing that we could all learn from?

[George McGraw]

Absolutely.

The Quebec government has enshrined the human right to water in its territorial legislation, and I'm encouraging the Canadian federal government to do that at the federal level. I'm engaged in that same advocacy down here in the United States.

We see that when we enshrine human rights protections in a country's founding document, like its constitution or its bill of rights, or even in separate laws, there is a massive move toward protecting those rights. They become very powerful tools for impacted communities to use in their own advocacy.

Yes, in this way, Quebec is a leader not just in Canada but internationally.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Can you give us an example of a massive action by Quebec on that file, based on what you have said?

[George McGraw]

No, I'm not aware of Quebec making massive moves on this yet, but I can give you an example. Here in California, we enshrined the right about 10 years ago now. Our first piece of legislation on that passed last year. It created a safe and affordable drinking water fund here in the state, which has made a massive impact in access, but I think there's a big lag in time between the recognition of the human right for water, its codification into law and then eventually its use to produce policy and programs, which I'm hoping will follow quickly in the Québécois example.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you.

Ms. Phare, my first question is a technical one.

As a member of the International Joint Commission, or IJC, do you have an eye on the relations that may exist between the provinces when a waterway is shared, or does your work focus solely and directly on relations between the United States and Canada, and not between the provinces?

[Merrell-Ann Phare]

Thank you.

The IJC is created by the two countries—Canada and the U.S.—pursuant to a treaty, but we work in collaboration with state- and provincial-level governments also, and indigenous governments. In particular, we do so through a program called the international watersheds initiative, where we have a specific mandate to bring all players—governments, citizens and nations—from within our watershed to try to create transboundary collaboration for the best interests of the shared waters.

Yes, we routinely deal with provinces, territories and nations in the work that we do in order to find that shared common vision.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Based on your experience, do you think that provinces work well together? Is that as easy or as good as our relations with America?

[Merrell-Ann Phare]

In my experience through the International Joint Commission, yes. Water management is very complex. The science and engineering are hard to determine. The people work together very well. In jurisdictions, once you get up to the level of power and authority, it gets a little harder, and I think that climate change is making that more difficult.

You have to remember that the boundary waters treaty was created in 1909 over just that kind of conflict. It was based out of some things that were happening between Alberta and Montana at the time with water apportionment issues, and this tool is meant for just that kind of situation. It is—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thanks very much, Ms. Phare.

We'll go to Mr. van Koeverden.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses who have joined us today for this important study. My question is for Mr. Sandford.

Mr. Sandford, it's not a coincidence that I'm wearing my UN pin today on my lapel. I wear it almost every day. I'm happy to say that we're matching today. I'm a big fan of the sustainable development goals, and my question today is prefaced with something that I find very troubling.

Recently, Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis, Pierre Poilievre's shadow minister for infrastructure and communities, not only supported and sponsored an official House of Commons petition that calls on Canada to expeditiously withdraw from the UN, but it has also become clear that she had a hand in drafting that petition. In that petition, MP Leslyn Lewis cited the negative consequences that things like sustainable develop impose on Canada.

Now, I am loath to amplify any of those harmful conspiracy theories, but they are regularly shared and used by Conservatives, and I think it's really important to recognize how much vital work Canada and the UN do together. I've been fortunate enough to witness some of it in francophone western Africa, particularly on clean water.

Mr. Sandford, could you articulate for this committee and this study how essential the work is that Canada and the UN do together to ensure water security, safety, hygiene and sanitation for those less fortunate?

[Robert Sandford]

Thank you very much for the question, and thank you for your support of the UN.

What is really important about this is that the vision and image of the UN are very much affected by current events and media, and a great deal of the tension right now happens to be focused on the UN Security Council, and in particular the two wars that are being fought.

However, one thing that's really important to understand about the UN is that there's no organization like it. Beyond and behind all of these events, they are the institution supported by the member states that are there to help in humanitarian ways, and without that we would not be able to help refugees or put people back on a course for a productive life in a different place. More importantly, we are there when there are drought crises and climate change impacts, and countries like Canada, as donors and also participants in those particular programs, are vital to holding our world together right now in a period of very great geopolitical instability.

I hope that offers some answer to your question.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Sandford. It does.

I would note that there is a great deal of misinformation and disinformation out there, and that anytime it's amplified it does more harm to the institutions that are doing all of the extraordinary work that organizations like the UN—

[Robert Sandford]

I would submit to you that, for almost all of us who work in this domain, this is not a job; it's a calling. The committed people we have working with us are committed wholly in their minds and hearts to doing what they can for all of humanity, and that is global citizenship. We are grateful that Canada, as a global citizen, is supporting these programs. Thank you.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Sandford. You can count on me to continue to be a proponent for and supportive of the United Nations and all of the global citizenry that comes along with that work.

I'd like to move on to agriculture and water usage if I could—perhaps, with Dr. Madramootoo—with respect to international development and how important it is that we ensure that global water security and food insecurity are not issues that persist. Particularly, because of climate change right now, we're seeing more frequent droughts, floods and extreme weather events, which are impacting people's food security, which just increases a lot of unrest around the world. We know that a lot of conflict is often spurred by water and food insecurity.

Can you speak to the importance of Canada's role globally in ensuring that we decrease that sense of insecurity?