National Freshwater Data Strategy Workshop 2024 - Summary
Date: September 25–26, 2024
Location: Canada Centre for Inland Waters, Burlington, Ontario
Organized by: Canada Water Agency
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Workshop Overview
In the engagements that guided the creation of the Canada Water Agency, Canadians stressed that availability and access to high quality data is critical to effective decision-making on all freshwater issues in Canada.
The National Freshwater Data Strategy Workshop (2024) brought together diverse participants, including experts and representatives from Indigenous organizations, academia, civil society, government officials and industry stakeholders. The workshop aimed to address challenges in freshwater data management and collaboration, laying the groundwork to develop a National Freshwater Data Strategy. The event featured plenary sessions, breakout discussions, and collaborative action planning to enhance data accessibility, quality, and interoperability.
Participants agreed that a National Freshwater Data Strategy is needed to build a common approach to freshwater data and information across governments, Canadian society, and geographic regions. Common data issues included access, trust, stewardship, quality, standardization, capacity, and coordination.
To build on this progress, the Canada Water Agency will continue engaging with freshwater data communities and other levels of government to define the priorities and actions needed to enhance our understanding and inform decisions about water.
Workshop Findings
Workshop discussions provided insight into the current challenges and opportunities in freshwater data management.
Themes that emerged are grouped into:
- Data Strategy Vision and Principles
- Challenges
- Opportunities (Recommendations from Participants)
Description of Figure 1 - National Freshwater Data Strategy Vision and Principles
Vision
Working together to enable all Canadians to have access to the best available freshwater data to inform their decisions.
Core pillars
- Quality data
- Findable and accessible data
- Data stewardship
- Capacity building and mobilization
Foundational principles
- Trust and respect
- Communication and collaboration
Participants expressed strong support for the vision and principles outlined in the National Freshwater Data Strategy Framework Discussion paper (Figure 1). They emphasized the need for ongoing and cross-jurisdictional collaboration, engaging all levels of government and all sectors.
Indigenous data sovereignty and meaningful engagement with rights holders were noted as important themes throughout the workshop. Coordination and leadership—roles the CWA could fulfill as part of its mandate—were viewed as critical foundations for the strategy’s long-term success.
Challenges
Regardless of background, participants shared common challenges working with freshwater data. The nature of the data often requires working across jurisdictions, ministries, and various government departments, and across disciplines of study and industry.
Some key challenges identified include:
- Fragmentation and Accessibility
- Data, particularly authoritative data, are difficult to find and use due to fragmentation across sectors and jurisdictions.
- Trust and Inclusion
- Building trust with Indigenous communities and other partners is critical. Data sovereignty and respectful partnerships must be prioritized.
- Quality and Standards
- Inconsistent data standards hinder usability. Principles, guidelines, and standards are needed to address challenges to interoperability.
- Capacity Building
- Many organizations, especially smaller non-governmental organizations, and community groups, lack the resources and training to effectively manage and share data.
- Coordination and Collaboration
- Canada’s water professionals come from different regions, professions, and perspectives. While water data may be coordinated in one area, that knowledge and capacity may not be adequately communicated to others.
Recommendations from participants
These interim recommendations from workshop participants will be considered to help shape the National Freshwater Data Strategy, which will be collaboratively developed by the CWA through continued engagements with partners and stakeholders.Footnote *
- Data Governance
- Address fragmentation and accessibility by establishing a federated data governance model to share data while respecting data ownership.
- Strengthen collaboration across jurisdictions to improve water management. The Government of Canada should show leadership in bringing people together.
- Develop a Water Data Community of Practice to share approaches and practices for aspects of data management including data licensing, tools and standards.
- Indigenous Communities and Knowledge
- Promote distinction-based approaches to recognize the value of community knowledge and explore how Indigenous-led data stewardship could be supported.
- Respect traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and work with Indigenous people to incorporate them appropriately in data governance frameworks.
- Data Standards and Quality
- Build a pathway to adopt internationally recognized standards or establish new ones for data collection and sharing.
- Promote the use of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and enhance metadata.
- Capacity Building and Tools
- Support training and funding in data collection, quality assurance, and long-term stewardship.
- Leverage emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to address data gaps.
- Establish linkages or utilize existing national data portals with standardized metadata cataloguing.
- Collaboration and Outreach
- Foster cross-sector partnerships, including non-governmental organizations, academia, and industry.
- Increase public engagement with accessible, plain-language data visualization tools.
Plenary sessions
Each day began with plenary speakers sharing ideas and expertise with attendees for managing data in a way that meets the needs of today and tomorrow.
Day one sessions included:
- Tools to Support Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Provenance
- Presented by Dr. Stephany RunningHawk Johnson, Founding Executive Director of Local Contexts.
- Focused on ethical data management, traditional knowledge, and Indigenous cultural authority.
- Highlighted the need for trust-based partnerships and long-term researcher-community relationships.
- Demonstrated how digital and physical labels help communities assert ownership over data and information resources, including environmental data.
- Data in the Government of Canada
- Presented by Alexandra Dykes, Executive Director Information and Data Governance, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
- Introduced the Data Strategy for the Federal Public Service 2023-2026 and presented how the Government of Canada is improving data management and governance.
- Addressed challenges of data silos and highlighted efforts to promote data-driven decision-making.
- National Freshwater Data Strategy Vision
- Presented by Jim M.C. Young, Data Lead, Canada Water Agency.
- Explored international examples of freshwater data strategies and the need for collaboration across jurisdictions.
- Called for participants to consider their role in water, and how we could work together so that data will “follow water wherever it goes.”
The plenary session on day two highlighted success stories from innovative Canadians who have changed how freshwater data is used to support community needs.
Day two sessions included:
- Innovating Community Data
- Presented by Kat Kavanagh, Founder and Co-Executive Director, Water Rangers.
- Demonstrated the role of community-based water monitoring in filling data gaps and emphasized the need for affordable, accessible tools.
- Showed how community-based water monitoring can range from educational opportunities to professional scientific investigations.
- Scaling-up Community Data
- Presented by Katherine Balpataky, Executive Director, DataStream.
- Highlighted DataStream’s collaborative approach to integrating diverse water quality datasets.
- Advocated for transparency, inclusivity, and local capacity building through digital infrastructure like the DataStream platforms.
Breakout Sessions
Participants met in smaller groups and discussed common challenges, issues, and opportunities during breakout sessions.
At the first session (“Working Together Within Our Communities”), common issues among sectors or water data ecosystems were discussed. The second (“Solutions and Actions”) and third (“Building the Strategy and Moving Forward”) sessions organized participants with diverse backgrounds, interests, and perspectives to build upon a collaborative approach.
Session 1: Working Together Within Our Communities
The first breakout session, aimed to identify shared challenges and opportunities for strengthening freshwater data management through cross-sectoral collaboration. This session brought together participants with interests across five sectors of society. These discussion groups included:
- NGOs and civil society
- First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities
- Public sector
- Academia
- Business and innovation
Session 2: Solutions and Actions
The second session, focused on actionable steps on gap identification common across sectors and included five discussion groups:
- Processes and tools
- Data stewardship
- Findable and accessible data
- Quality data
- Standards
Session 3: Building the Strategy and Moving Forward
The third breakout session, focused on key steps for developing a collaborative strategy and included five key discussion areas:
- Advisory structure
- Pillars and priorities
- Action plan
- Capacity and talent
- Design and drafting
Next Steps
The next steps are focused on advancing the development of the National Freshwater Data Strategy under the leadership of the Canada Water Agency. This process will ensure that the strategy is comprehensive, inclusive, and reflective of the diverse needs across Canada.
- Establish a Data Working Group within the federal government to improve Government of Canada’s coordination on the strategy.
- Work with provinces, territories, municipalities, and Indigenous partners to ensure broad representation in strategy development.
- Collaborate with experts to define the foundational elements of the strategy.
- Continue discussions with partners and stakeholders through regional meetings to identify key gaps and risks to be addressed within the strategy.
- Develop a draft strategy document.
- Host a second National Freshwater Data Strategy Workshop to gather consensus on a draft strategy for endorsement.
Conclusion
The National Freshwater Data Strategy Workshop (2024) underscored the importance of collaboration, inclusivity, and innovation in addressing Canada’s freshwater data challenges. By leveraging the insights and recommendations from this workshop, the Canada Water Agency is working to develop a comprehensive strategy that meets the needs of diverse partners and ensures sustainable stewardship of Canada’s freshwater resources for future generations.
The Canada Water Agency appreciates the contributions of all the participants and looks forward to continued engagement in shaping the National Freshwater Data Strategy.
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