Address by Minister Dion to International Joint Commission fall reception

October 24, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario

Check against delivery. This speech has been translated in accordance with the Government of Canada’s official languages policy and edited for posting and distribution in accordance with its communications policy.

As you know, for over 100 years, the International Joint Commission [IJC] has prevented and resolved disputes over water between Canada and the United States under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty.

For more than a century, the IJC has fulfilled its aim of pursuing the common good of both countries while acting as an independent and objective adviser to our respective governments. It is part of the flourishing cooperation that emerged between Canada and the United States at the beginning of the 20th century and that has continued ever since.‎

As changing conditions in our water basins continue to affect economic, social and environmental interests, including in transboundary areas, the IJC’s role remains vital.

The Government of Canada appreciates the importance of the commission’s work. In response to four Plans of Study completed by the IJC, the Government of Canada’s Budget 2016 set aside up to $19.5 million to study water quality, quantity and flooding issues in four Canada-United States boundary basins: the Upper Great Lakes, Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River, the Lake of the Woods and the Souris River.

The IJC has been active in and around these basins and across other boundary areas that both link and delineate our countries. Your strength flows from a collegial and independent approach to transboundary issues.

You consult. You build consensus. You seek public participation. You engage local governments and First Nations. You are objective. And you rely on scientific research.

Your work is quiet, methodical and crucial. The impact you make, critical.

I want to thank everyone involved in the IJC’s work for your tireless efforts to manage our shared waters. They [these waters] have enormous economic, environmental and symbolic value for Canadians and Americans.

The IJC’s history and our shared water resource management is overflowing with examples of challenges that exist primarily in one country but whose resolution depends on action in the other. Or actions in one country that might threaten water resources in the other. In these cases, the IJC has advised governments, with scientific information and community involvement as its guide, on the potential actions to consider. Our governments have used this advice to develop the most suitable solutions.

The management of water worldwide will soon demand our attention too: we will be called to share with many others in the world the skills and expertise that we have acquired in the last 100 years through the work of the IJC.

As the effects of climate change become more significant and widespread, water-related issues will be exacerbated. In fact, water will be the most important issue in the 21st century.

Indeed, nearly one billion people worldwide, one-sixth of humanity, have absolutely zero access to clean water right now.

Some 2.4 billion are without basic sanitation facilities.

Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from water-borne illness.

The UN estimates that every year sub-Saharan Africa alone loses 40 billion ‎labour hours in water collection, and the vast majority of those collecting are women and girls.

Water insecurity is crippling societies and at the root of far too many conflicts.

Joint management of transboundary watersheds has been a source of stability and pride for us, but for too many, it is a driver of conflict.

The acceleration in climate change, the increased frequency of drought and flooding, and the increasing variations in water flows and in the volume of hydro generation necessary for agriculture, energy production and human consumption are all conspiring to make access to water, water management and water security a critical challenge for all of us.

The challenge of ensuring that waters are managed jointly and effectively will grow for riparian states around the globe. Of the world’s 263 international water basins, 158 lack any type of cooperative framework. As water-related issues are exacerbated by climate change, the risk for tension and conflict will rise, particularly where there are no cooperative frameworks.

Throughout the world, states must constantly make choices and decisions about water management. For example, water shortages could be addressed through irrigation improvement in one country to the disadvantage of countries downstream if there is neither a keen attention to a conflict-sensitive approach nor proper cooperation.

Joint management practices and governance mechanisms, as carried out through the work of the IJC, provide a model for how boundary and transboundary water disputes can be managed and avoided.

We should share this model with other riparian states so they can apply it too.

By emphasizing stakeholder views, scientific inquiry, and sound governance mechanisms, shared water management can create opportunities to build stronger relationships and serve to preserve the common good between riparian states. Rather than seek selfish ends separately, states can pursue the common good jointly. The potential positive results are impressive.

The world’s water resources would be more sustainable. Water governance would be exemplary. And the potential for conflict would go down dramatically.

So, from my perspective, the IJC is helping to ensure that irrigators have sufficient water sources and that steps are taken to reduce flood risks in the Souris and Champlain-Richelieu basins.

The IJC is also setting an example of cooperation for the world to follow.

This is a world I believe in.

Thank you for your work.

Contacts

Chantal Gagnon
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
343-203-1851
chantal.gagnon@international.gc.ca

Media Relations Office
Global Affairs Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
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