Canada is blessed with plentiful, clean water when compared to many countries. But this does not mean that we are immune from problems found elsewhere.

Increasingly we are hearing about communities with unsafe drinking water and impending water shortages. Our cities dump billions of litres of raw sewage into our waterways. Development or resource extraction of some form has crept into virtually every major watershed in the country.

There is also another development, unnoticed by most Canadians: provinces such as Alberta are introducing water sales and trading schemes that will result in water flowing to the highest bidder, at considerable risk to the environment and social equality.

In short, despite the perception of an abundance of clean water, Canada is clearly experiencing signs of an impending freshwater crisis.

The roots of this crisis may well lie in the collectively held myth of water abundance. Canadians like to think they are blessed with abundant water; a quick glance at a map would seem to bear them out. From northern Quebec’s mighty rivers, to the Great Lakes, to the myriad rivers and lakes that carve up our North, we seem to be blessed with all the water we need.

But viewed from the perspective of renewable supplies — the amount of fresh water that is fully replaced in any given year by rain or snow, and that accumulates in our rivers and streams before flowing out to sea — Canada has just 7 per cent of the world’s total, an amount equal to its share of the world’s land mass. Not exactly the endless supply most Canadians .

Once framed this way, it is clear that we need to move swiftly to implement an intelligent and environmentally protective water governance model.

It is in the interest of all Canadians – and our duty to future generations – to stave off the rising spectre of chronic water shortages, frustrated development, and further environmental degradation seen in other regions across the globe.

Encouragingly, recent proposals have been put forward for National Drinking Water Standards have been endorsed by water experts, politicians and the media.

Passing this important legislation into law would be great first step, but we will need much, much more action from our governments as soon as possible. Or it is going to be a fight to the last drop.

Devon Page
Executive Director
Ecojustice (formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund)
dpage [at] ecojustice.ca

King Neptune, the Roman God of oceans, joined CPAWS yesterday at press conference on the Parliament Hill introducing a major report http://cpaws.org/ on Canada’s failure to act on protecting our oceans and the Great Lakes.
A God of few words, Neptune was accompanied by Sabine Jessen, manager of CPAWS’ Oceans and Great Freshwater Lakes program who pointed out that worldwide, scientists say our oceans are at a “tipping point”. She also reminded Canadians of the great privilege of being the global caretakers of the longest coastline in the world and of 20% of the planet’s freshwater. “We need to take that responsibility seriously and become global leaders on oceans.”
15 years ago, Canada committed to create a network of Marine Protected Areas — the aquatic equivalent of national parks — on all three coasts and in the Great Lakes. The target date is just four years away, but today less than 1% of Canada’s waters are protected. Canada is ranks 70th in the world in marine protection, a number all the more shameful when one considers Canada’s marine bounty.
The federal government took a couple of big steps recently by advancing a protected area in northern Lake Superior last year and finalizing one around a BC underwater mountain chain called the Bowie Seamount earlier this month. CPAWS is calling on the federal government to make oceans and marine conservation a priority, starting with finalizing protection for four longstanding candidate marine protected areas: Gwaii Haanas, Tarium Naryutait, Igaliqtuug and Manicouagan Peninsula.

It is now so clear how high the stakes are if we don’t tackle the global warming challenge – rising sea levels, strains on food supplies, spread of disease, significant threat to many species.

It is equally clear that we need global cooperation and leadership to set ourselves on a course that allows us all to live fulfilling lives while cutting our greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 80+%. This global cooperation must occur with earnest at the highest level and complete conviction to solve global warming at the 2009 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen.

The Copenhagen conference is the meeting at which the citizens of the world must set science-based targets to prevent catastrophic climate change, starting with targets for 2020. The hardest part of the negotiation will be the allocation of responsibility amongst countries.

Will Canada step up to be a leader or not?

I believe we need Canada to be a leader in Copenhagen. Canada cannot be a bully in Copenhagen demanding compromises, we need to step up and show we are prepared to take real action to substantially reduce GHG pollution between now and 2020.

By demonstrating that Canada is prepared to take real and swift action to reduce emissions we can be a positive force in the international negotiations and help ensure the largest polluters take on a fair share of the responsibility. If we do not show real progress we will be relegated and remembered as a negative influence.

So what will it take for Canada to be a positive force?

Simple, real and swift policy action at home. To date we have only seen a patchwork of policies, weak regulations and no coherent strategy and plan to significantly reduce GHG pollution.

In our report, Tomorrow Today – How Canada Can Make a World of Difference (www.tomorrowtodaycanada.ca) we identified a number of key priorities for action:
1) By 2009, set a price on GHG emissions starting with a price no lower than $30/tonne and increasing to at least $50/tonne by 2015. This price should be applied broadly in the Canadian economy. These pollution levies should be used towards investments in further actions to reduce GHG pollution, and also used to offset any related cost increases for low-income Canadians;
2) Adopt an Energy Efficiency Plan to implement a coordinated package of regulations, financial incentives, and capacity building measures for each major energy-using sector;
3) Adopt a Renewable Energy Action Plan that provides the right incentives to allow Canada to grow and diversify its economy through our incredible abundance of low impact renewable energy resources.

There is simply no reason why we aren’t putting a price on pollution – if you make a mess you need to pay to clean it up. There is also no longer an excuse for us to waste energy. There is no reason we should miss out on the rapidly growing renewable energy industry – let’s start developing and manufacturing these technologies here at home.

In short, Copenhagen is possibly the most important meeting of the world’s governments, ever; Canada needs to show up at Copenhagen as a positive force for change; to be a credible positive force we must take swift and deep policy action at home.

Not only can we do it, we must do it.

Sincerely,

Marlo Raynolds
Executive Director, Pembina Institute
Marlor[at]pembina.org

Hi again blog world. Today was a great day! 7,600 square kilometres of wilderness were granted interim protection. The Naats-ihch’oh National Park Reserve (the headwaters of Nahanni National Park) was announced today by Minister Baird at a celebration in Ottawa. This means that the habitat for caribou, grizzly bears and peregrine falcons is now protected in this majestic part of Canada. And another national park is added to the system and gets us one step closer to completing a representative system of national parks in Canada!

While I know that we must tackle the climate issue, we cannot forget that nature has other parts that are suffering. Biodiversity, the diversity of life on this planet needs protection and one of the best ways to do that is to establish protected areas, especially in Canada where we still have the opportunity to do so. I believe we also have the responsibility to do so as well.

Julie Gelfand

President, Nature Canada

Je n’ai jamais fréquenté ni lu un blogue de toute ma vie. Mais j’apprécie le fait qu’ils existent, particulièrement en ce moment où les problèmes de l’environnement sont de plus en plus importants pour chacun d’entre nous et non seulement pour les écologistes convaincus.

Bienvenue au blogue Demain n’attend pas ! Je suis la première des onze dirigeants de groupes voués à la protection de l’environnement et de la nature qui s’exprimera ici régulièrement pour discuter de questions qui, à notre avis, devraient figurer au programme du gouvernement fédéral, quel que soit le parti au pouvoir. L’environnement n’est pas un enjeu politique, ni un enjeu économique, ni un enjeu social. Nous parlons essentiellement de l’avenir de la vie (telle que nous la connaissons) sur notre planète. Et au moins quelques-uns d’entre nous pensent que c’est un enjeu très important.

Le changement ou le réchauffement du climat est extrêmement dangereux pour toute forme de vie sur notre planète, et nous DEVONS agir pour ralentir ce processus. Cependant, nous devons AUSSI nous préoccuper de plusieurs autres questions interconnectées, que ce soit les produits chimiques toxiques qui s’infiltrent dans notre eau potable ou dans nos aliments, la façon dont nous traitons nos océans (c’est-à-dire qu’ils NE sont PAS des décharges publiques) ou comment nous protégeons l’habitat d’une diversité incroyable de formes de vie sur notre planète. Toutes ces questions sont indissociables; notre gouvernement fédéral doit faire preuve de leadership et s’attaquer à tous ces problèmes simultanément.

S’il vous plaît, lisez notre document Demain n’attend pas. C’est le reflet d’une grande collaboration entre plusieurs groupes importants de protection et de défense de l’environnement. Montrez ce document à tous vos candidats à la prochaine élection. Appelez votre député et demandez-lui ce qu’il fait pour appliquer nos recommandations. Faites un don ou travaillez bénévolement avec un de nos groupes. Mobilisez-vous ! Nous avons besoin de vous.

Bienvenue.

Julie Gelfand

Directrice administrative

Fédération canadienne de la nature

I have never been to or read a blog in my life. I am glad that you are out there though, particularly at this time when environmental issues are increasingly important to each and every one of us, and not just to us “tree hugger” types!

Welcome to the Tomorrow/Today blog! I am the first of 11 different leaders of environmental/nature conservation groups that will appear here regularly to discuss issues that we believe should be on the agenda of the federal government, no matter which party is in power. The environment is not a political issue; it is not an economic issue; it is not a social issue. We are fundamentally talking about the future of all life (as we know it) on the planet. And at least some of us think this is a pretty important issue.

A changing climate, a warming atmosphere is extremely dangerous for all life on this planet, and we MUST take action to slow down this warming. However, we ALSO have to deal with several other issues that are all interconnected, be that toxic chemicals that are leaching into our drinking water or our food products, how we treat our oceans (i.e. they are NOT garbage dumps) or how we protect habitat for the incredible diversity of life forms on this planet. All of these issues are interlinked; our federal government must show leadership and address all of these issues simultaneously.

Please read our Tomorrow/Today document. It is a great collaboration between some great conservation and environmental groups. Please show the document to all your candidates in the next election. Call your MP and ask them what they are doing to implement these recommendations. Donate to or volunteer with one of our groups. Get involved. We need you.

Welcome.

Julie Gelfand

Executive Director

Nature Canada