Freshwater: Appearance before the Standing Committee – March 19, 2024
Canada Water Agency and Freshwater Action Plan
Q1. What is the mandate of the Canada Water Agency and what is the status of creating the stand-alone Agency?
The mandate of the Canada Water Agency is to improve freshwater management in Canada by providing leadership, effective collaboration federally, and improved coordination and collaboration with provinces, territories, and Indigenous peoples to proactively address national, and regional transboundary, freshwater challenges and opportunities.
The Canada Water Agency currently exists within Environment and Climate Change Canada. Legislation to create the standalone Canada Water Agency was introduced on November 30, 2023 (in the Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act). Once the legislation is in place, the Government will work quickly to launch the standalone Agency.
Q2. Where is the Canada Water Agency located and how much will it cost?
In Budget 2023, the Government committed to locating the headquarters in Winnipeg. The Canada Water Agency also has regional offices across Canada reflecting the regional nature of freshwater issues.
Winnipeg is near one of the major Freshwater Ecosystem Initiatives in Lake Winnipeg. It is an important hub for sustainable development and water in Canada, an important historical gathering place for Indigenous peoples, and the broader region (the Prairies) is highly dependent on water for agriculture and vulnerable to climate change impacts.
[For additional detail: Winnipeg is located on Treaty One lands, the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Anisininew, Dakota, Lakota, and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Red River Métis. Winnipeg receives its drinking water from Treaty Three territory (Shoal Lake 40 First Nation) and almost all hydroelectricity from Treaty Five territory. Winnipeg has the largest urban Indigenous population of any city in Canada.]
Budget 2023 invested $85.1 million over five years and $21 million ongoing to support the creation of the Canada Water Agency.
Q3. What is the Freshwater Action Plan and will the Canada Water Agency be responsible for delivering it?
The majority of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s efforts to protect transboundary waterbodies of national significance were amalgamated in 2017 with the creation of the Freshwater Action Plan. The Freshwater Action Plan is an ecosystem-based approach used to protect and restore water for drinking, recreation, and economic purposes. Since its creation, activities under the Freshwater Action Plan include restoration and protection actions, science and monitoring (including Indigenous Knowledge Systems), knowledge mobilization, governance, and the assessment of climate change impacts on water quality and aquatic ecosystem health.
Budget 2023 invested $650 million over ten years in a strengthened Freshwater Action Plan to deliver regionally responsive initiatives in the Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, the St. Lawrence River, the Fraser River, the Wolastoq/Saint John River, the Mackenzie River, and Lake Simcoe.
As the Prime Minister announced during President Biden’s 2023 visit, a significant potion of the new Budget 2023 funding ($420 million over 10 years) is for the Great Lakes. The funding is part of a renewed joint commitment to preserving and restoring these critical waters, building on 50 years of Canada-U.S. collaboration.
The Canada Water Agency will deliver on key elements of the strengthened Freshwater Action Plan to improve freshwater outcomes; restore, protect, and manage waterbodies of national significance; and improve freshwater quality. Environment and Climate Change Canada will continue to deliver certain elements such as freshwater science.
Q4. How will the Canada Water Agency work with provinces and territories, Indigenous peoples and stakeholders?
Freshwater management in a country as vast as Canada is complex. Challenges vary by region and addressing them can involve multiple jurisdictions.
Between 2020 - 2023, ECCC conducted extensive engagement on Canada’s most pressing freshwater challenges and the potential role for the Canada Water Agency.
The department engaged with over 2700 Canadians, all provinces and territories, and representatives or advocates for over 750 Indigenous communities (including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis settlements and locals in regions throughout Canada).
To facilitate collaboration with provinces and territories, the Canada Water Agency will aim to leverage existing mechanisms such as the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, and various advisory and coordination committees that currently exist under the mature Freshwater Ecosystem Initiatives. The Agency will continue to respect provincial and territorial jurisdiction.
One of the important roles of the Canada Water Agency will be to engage First Nations, Inuit, and Métis on advancing the review of the Canada Water Act and implementing the Freshwater Action Plan.
The Government of Canada will continue to engage with partners as the Agency becomes fully operational.
Q5. How will the Canada Water Agency work to review the Canada Water Act?
More than 50 years after the Canada Water Act came into force, the federal government is opening a discussion on how this legislation could better reflect Canada’s current freshwater reality.
As an initial step, the Agency is seeking input from partners on how they want to be engaged. This will culminate in meaningful, responsive, and supported engagement plans.
Next, the Agency will engage with partners in accordance with the engagement plans. The aim will be to identify the objectives of the Canada Water Act and how to fulfill those objectives through improvements to the Act or other means.
Q6. Will the Canada Water Agency be responsible for addressing drinking water on Reserves?
The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that First Nations have access to safe, clean drinking water.
Indigenous Services Canada is the federal lead for drinking water on reserves.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has worked closely with Indigenous Services Canada to support the development of First Nations drinking water legislation. The departments have identified areas where the Canada Water Agency could potentially support Indigenous Service Canada’s important work on clean drinking water, including around source water protection.
Wastewater
Q1. What is the federal government doing to address the amount of untreated or undertreated wastewater effluent released in the environment?
The Government of Canada does not support releases of raw sewage. To address this issue the Government of Canada has:
put in place the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations, with effluent quality standards which came into effect in 2015. The standards are achievable through secondary treatment. This level of treatment allows the removal of up to 95% of conventional pollutants and up to 90% of other contaminants.
made significant investments in infrastructure. Since 2015, the Government of Canada has contributed $2.8 billion to more than 2,000 wastewater projects. This includes $2.3 billion from new investment programs (Investing in Canada Plan, Clean Water and Wastewater Fund).
The Regulations address untreated wastewater releases from communities without wastewater treatment by setting clear conditions and timelines to upgrade to meet the national standards.
Some communities needed to conduct major construction or upgrades to their existing infrastructure to meet these limits. These major infrastructure projects take significant time to plan, finance, and build. The Regulations allowed for extensions beyond 2015 (transitional authorization) to comply with the limits.
Communities had until June 2014 to apply for this extension, which could be issued for the end of 2020, 2030, or 2040. However, more than one hundred communities did not apply.
Environment and Climate Change Canada is proposing to amend the Regulations so that these communities have another opportunity to apply. The deadlines under a transitional authorization will remain the same.
Communities also need to maintain, repair, and upgrade their sewer systems, which can also sometimes result in unavoidable releases of undertreated wastewater.
Environment and Climate Change Canada is proposing to amend the Regulations to establish a risk-based approach for all planned releases, which set clear conditions based on the level of risk to the environment.
Proposed amendments to the Regulations were published in the Canada Gazette Part I for a 60-day public consultation period on May 27, 2023. We are working towards publishing the final amended Regulations in Canada Gazette Part II in spring 2024.
Q2. Why did the federal government authorize the release of billions of litres of raw sewage in the St. Lawrence River in 2015?
In October 2015, the City of Montreal planned to conduct critical maintenance work to their main sewer infrastructure to prevent equipment failure or breakage that would lead to an uncontrolled release of raw sewage.
Environment and Climate Change Canada informed the City that the planned release could not be authorised under the federal wastewater regulations since they were expected to be releases directly from the sewer system rather than a final discharge point in the treatment system. Releases from the sewer system are not authorized under the Regulation and are subject to the Fisheries Act.
Three Ministerial Orders were issued under the Fisheries Act on the situation.
The final order on November 9, 2015, did not authorize the release of raw sewage but established legally binding conditions as this deposit was subject to the Fisheries Act.
Conditions in the final Order included:
putting in place a management plan to reduce deposits from large industrial, institutional or commercial facilities to the City of Montreal’s sewers during the event;
enhanced water quality and environmental monitoring, mitigation, and clean-up measures;
sharing data with ECCC; and,
participating in an ECCC-led comprehensive review of the events that led up to the discharge.
The City of Montreal complied with the conditions set in the final Ministerial Order.
Q3. How much wastewater is released every year?
There is roughly 6 billion m3 of wastewater released into Canadian waterways each year.
Approximately 75% of the volume of wastewater released is treated to a minimum level of secondary treatment.
Approximately 24% of wastewater volumes are undertreated, and 1% are untreated.
