We're talking about transboundary rivers, and the only transboundary rivers I know flow into the United States. Anyway we'll leave that point.
I guess what I'm getting at is this. What does this really add to the treaty between Canada and the United States, the International Boundary Waters Treaty? That treaty already prohibits one country from changing the water levels in another country. The treaty already essentially makes it “illegal” for Canada to change the water flow or water levels of a transboundary river in such a way that water levels and flows would be affected in the United States. I'm not sure what we're doing here is a great leap forward.
My second question has to do with environmental assessment. When we're talking about major projects like your bill is aiming to address, we're talking essentially about diversions of mass quantities of water. This would have environmental impacts. One would think that any such project would be stopped at the stage of the environmental assessment process, unless the federal government has withdrawn from the environmental assessment process and leaves it up to the province, which then arranges things so that the process would allow a diversion.
If the environmental assessment process were working properly, maybe you wouldn't even need this bill.