As World Water Day Approaches, Our Hopes For What A National Water Agency Means for New Brunswick

Conservation Council and partner organizations submit recommendations on creation of Canada Water Agency

This World Water Day (March 22), we’re celebrating a smart move forward for freshwater protection across the country as the federal government moves toward creating the Canada Water Agency.

The national institution, announced in 2019, will ensure federal policies and actions across all departments are aligned with the government’s freshwater protection objectives.

Late last year, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, launched public consultations and published a discussion paper on the initiative, Toward the Creation of a Canada Water Agency.  

The discussion paper explores the role that the Canada Water Agency will play in freshwater management, and how the new agency will modernize federal freshwater leadership to address management challenges that are exacerbated by climate change. 

The Conservation Council, in partnership with WWF-Canada and other allies in freshwater protection in New Brunswick, participated in the public comment period with a joint submission on our recommendations on the need and benefits to New Brunswick and the Atlantic region of having a new national water protection body.

Read our submission here: English | French

What New Brunswickers love most about their waterways

We know that New Brunswickers love their rivers, lakes, and streams. Several polls conducted by the Conservation Council show that New Brunswickers value clean, healthy water and consider protecting waterways to be one of the most pressing environmental issues facing our province. 

The creation of the Canada Water Agency could help address some of the freshwater management challenges New Brunswick faces by:

  • Providing a centralized, open, and usable data portal for water quality data 
  • Improving collaborative watershed planning, building capacity for community watershed organizations and resilience in the face of climate change
  • Strengthening transboundary water management 

We are pleased to see the Canadian government taking steps toward the creation of the Canada Water Agency. We attended both the national and Atlantic regional forums held recently and continue to collaborate with our partners and the federal government to ensure the creation of a Canada Water Agency that takes a modern and equitable approach to addressing Canada’s freshwater management challenges.

Don’t forget to celebrate New Brunswick’s beautiful freshwater spaces on World Water Day, coming up Monday, March 22! 

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