Madam Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to discuss sustainable development, particularly as it relates to freshwater management and protection.
Many members will know that the protection of freshwater is something that hundreds of thousands of Albertans are deeply worried about now probably more than ever as we face the potential destruction of large portions of the eastern slopes of our Rocky Mountains and the poisoning of the Oldman River, streams and aquifers that sustain life in southern Alberta.
I am not from southern Alberta, but my husband's family has lived in the shadows of the eastern slopes for a very long time. I was born and bred in Edmonton. As many members will know, Edmonton is located in the North Saskatchewan River watershed and relies on the water of the North Saskatchewan for our very existence. I feel deeply compelled to not only protect this watershed but all watersheds and water basins in Canada.
Canada is one of the most freshwater abundant countries in the world. We are blessed with beautiful lakes, streams and waterways from coast to coast to coast. However, that does not mean there are no issues. Canada has long faced water challenges, especially in Alberta, and now those challenges are intensifying with climate change.
We need to change our approach to freshwater protection and management to address climate change, while improving Canada's outdated federal freshwater legislation. We also need to address new threats to our freshwater systems from ecologically damaging developments, like coal exploration and mining projects that Jason Kenney and the Conservative provincial government is supporting. The federal government has an obligation to ensure waterways are protected even when provincial governments refuse to do so.
Canadians are now well aware of the impacts of more frequent and more severe water-based natural disasters as well. We talk of 100-year floods more frequently now. We will probably have to change what we call those, because we can hardly call something a 100-year flood when it happens significantly more frequently.
In Alberta, we have bounced between drought and flood. It has cost lives and billions of dollars in disaster assistance and community rebuilding. In 2013, catastrophic floods displaced 100,000 people and killed five Albertans. We have seen similar disastrous floods in Ontario and Quebec. More regular floods and droughts cost billions in lost agricultural production and infrastructure.
Toxic algae blooms are now common in lakes across Canada. They kill wildlife and pets, sicken people and force our recreational areas to close.
My family has a small lakeside cottage at Seba Beach and we have had it for about 50 years. It is only in the last few years that algae blooms for all intents and purposes close the lake for several weeks each summer.
Our capacity to manage these events is severely hampered by a number of things. Among those would be deficient data and reporting, a lack of national forecasting and prediction capacity, outdated flood plain maps and a failure to adequately incorporate climate change impacts into our decision-making.
We know that climate change is already impacting freshwater and we know that these issues caused by climate change are complex and interrelated. It is not just changing weather patterns: the floods that come with sudden extreme storms, the droughts that come when we no longer get snow in the winter. Climate change is also changing how our forests grow, leading to more frequent and more dangerous forest fires, which in turn are leading to more flooding and more drought.
It is vital that the deficiencies in data, forecasting and mapping in the current system be addressed, but it is also vital that we have a coordinated and integrated federal response to these challenges. That requires federal water laws and policies that account for climate impacts now and into the future.
I spoke with the Minister of Environment earlier this month about the open-pit coal mining. I was alarmed by the admission that he could only evaluate individual projects and could not consider the cumulative impacts of multiple projects. Our ecosystem does not work this way and neither should our approval processes.
When I speak of the vital importance of having a holistic, comprehensive look at water issues and how we protect water, I want to make it crystal clear that we cannot allow this study to delay the creation of a Canada water agency. The government committed to the creation of the agency in the most recent throne speech, and I fully support that action.
A Canada water agency is overdue, but that agency's mandate and functions should be co-developed with indigenous nations. Water is sacred. Under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, water is understood to be an inherent right. It is a right that is not subject to other legal interpretations.
We know that indigenous people in Canada have had their inherent rights to water ignored for generations. These rights are barely recognized in current water management systems. A new nation-to-nation governance paradigm consistent with the principles of reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is needed to recognize indigenous nations' inherent right to self-determination. Anything else contravenes the stated intentions of the government and will ensure that the new agency is a failure.
The agency's mandate must also be developed in close collaboration with local authorities, water organizations and the general public. The level of expertise among academics and activists on these issues in my riding of Edmonton Strathcona alone is impressive and we need to make sure that this expertise is accessed.
Finally, on the issue of creating a Canadian water agency, I just want to add that the agency would be just one of the reforms we need. We also need to modernize and update the Canada Water Act. The motion should not delay or otherwise prevent the committee from setting a work plan to do just that.
Earlier in my speech, I talked a bit about the proposed open-pit coal mining and the environmental protections and the need to protect water in Alberta. As members will know, this is preoccupying me at the moment. In Alberta, Jason Kenney's UCP government has now rescinded the coal policy that has been in place my entire life and that has prevented new coal expansion and development on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
It is important to note that while I am urging the committee to consider a wide range of issues, including climate change and broad consultation, Jason Kenney's government did absolutely no consultation before rescinding the coal policy, a policy put in place by the Lougheed government after six and a half years of public consultation.
Jason Kenney's move to open the eastern slopes to coal mining and exploration will not just change our mountains forever, but will also have severe consequences for Alberta's water basin for generations to come. These impacts will be felt far downstream, including in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the United States. It is that cross-border water issue that means the federal government must act.
As the committee develops this study and the renewal of our water policies, it is critically important that it consider the impacts of decisions by governments like Jason Kenney's to turn to old technologies and old development for short-term economic gain at the expense of our water systems. The federal government must include an examination of open-pit coal mining in this review.
Given that the quantity, quality and timing of water flows are all directly related to land use and that the need for climate change mitigation will increase the importance of groundwater recharge, which occurs on terrestrial environments, it is essential that the committee include expertise and consideration of land-use impacts on water security as well.
Failure to consider the links between land use and water has caused ongoing challenges, and no effective solutions are being implemented. A case in point of course is coal mining. The sort of damage becomes evident thanks to water monitoring in the streams themselves, and this is traditionally where we have looked for water problems and solutions. However, the problems are actually land-use problems and the solutions will require new approaches to planning and regulating land use in the source water areas for Canadian rivers. For this reason, it is essential that the committee include expertise and seek advice.
Right now, a single project threatens the water supply for much of southern Alberta, including drinking water for Lethbridge, Fort MacLeod and surrounding communities and the irrigation water that farmers and ranchers rely upon for agricultural systems. The committee must include these issues in its study.