Clean and abundant water is essential to ensuring human health and the health of our economy. The majority of the world’s population lives near and depends on freshwater environments to provide drinking and irrigation water, food, employment and recreation. Rivers and lakes are essential as transportation and shipping routes, and as energy sources.
Humans aren’t the only ones who depend on freshwater for survival. Freshwater ecosystems are rich in life. An estimated 12 percent of all animal species live in fresh water.
Canada has some of the world's most extensive freshwater resources. But we cannot continue to take these resources for granted in the face of global warming. In Alberta's mountain ranges, the glaciers and snowpacks that serve as "water towers" for the Prairies are already in retreat, while water levels in the upper Great Lakes have been falling year by year. Expert predictions suggest these changes will accelerate with a hotter, drier climate.
Meanwhile, invasive species, persistent organic pollutants, endocrine disrupters and groundwater depletion are all having an impact on our water supplies. The threat of bulk water exports and diversions south of the border has also loomed large in recent years.
Protected areas, such as National Parks, National Wildlife Areas and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries, not only preserve freshwater sources, including the critical headwaters of important river systems, they also protect the land around them from becoming polluted. Yet nearly 12 million hectares of wilderness are being managed on less than $4 million dollars annually, which is a tiny fraction of what is needed to properly address management concerns and protect wildlife populations. And Canada’s national park system remains incomplete, leaving millions of hectares of wetlands unprotected. We must do more.
Action Agenda
Ask each candidate running in your riding about their commitment to the following action agenda:
• Announce a funded plan to complete and manage Canada’s system of National Wildlife Areas and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries, including updating the system’s legal and policy framework.• By 2010, develop a comprehensive Canada-wide water strategy in collaboration with provincial, territorial governments, First Nations, and community organizations.
• Pass a Sustainable Water Act to conserve water through such measures as national appliance water-efficiency standards, enhanced prohibitions on bulk water exports, and protection and restoration of vulnerable waters facing urgent threats, such as the Great Lakes, Arctic Ocean and Bay of Fundy.
• Pass a Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure safe drinking water for all Canadians, including binding federal standards for drinking-water quality.
• Implement action plans to protect groundwater and ensure safe drinking water for all First Nations and Inuit communities.
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