Environment committee  There should be riparian rights, as you started to say. They presumably would not be modified by provincial legislation, although the province has taken the point of view that there are no water rights with respect to the numbered treaties or reserves, outside of the ones that ar

Environment committee  I would say there is. In fact, DFO has taken the position that water withdrawal can be a HADD. If you take enough water out of a watercourse that you disturb fish habitat, that is a HADD and a violation of the Fisheries Act, unless it's authorized under the act.

Environment committee  Yes. Under the new water act that came into effect in 1999, licences have a term of ten years. However, they are automatically renewable, provided that the licence holder has complied with the conditions. So they can be, in effect, in perpetuity. Even though they are renewable, t

Environment committee  It's really quite complex, because our water law was developed in the 1800s and we realize we cannot really protect the Athabasca River with that law the way it is. That is why this framework was entered into. It is designed to protect the instream flows where our water law does

Environment committee  Thank you very much. Of course I don't represent the University of Calgary either. These are my own points of view. My presentation will concern two areas. I will speak on the importance of an effective legislated enforcement mechanism for the water management framework, instr