Re: Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development for its study on fresh water in Canada, following up on February 8th presentation and discussion from Oliver M. Brandes (University of Victoria Centr

The protection, conservation, and improved governance of Canada’s fresh water is of vital importance, especially with the current and increasing threats of climate change and water insecurity. [...] Safeguarding and ensuring the sustainability of Canada’s fresh water requires the federal government to better engage in management, including creating the necessary information to inform decisions, providing resources, and enabling local solutions to the myriad water issues across Canada. [...] • Water and watersheds are part of our health infrastructure and fundamentally about material security and a sense of agency and future for communities and businesses. [...] How to build a 21st-century Canada Water Act • Enable, enhance, and require the ability to predict and respond to water problems—to protect people, communities, and infrastructure from changing hydrology due to climate change • Advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples consistent with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. [...] This should be reflected in key content in the Act and in the process for developing the Act, for example as a committed co-drafting process (see, for example, the Wildlife Act of the Northwest Territories, the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act (Bill C-61), and the development of the Watershed Security Strategy in British Columbia).