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"Right to water Alberta."
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Native Peoples and Water Rights
Through a combination of field work and archival research, Kenichi Matsui offers an original and pioneering overview of the evolution of water law and agricultural policies in the Canadian west. By incorporating the history of water law philosophies, water development technologies, agricultural policies, and cross-cultural theories, Matsui constructs an interdisciplinary analysis of how both Native peoples and non-native stakeholders struggled for better rights and livelihood through litigation, political campaigns, and direct actions.
eBook
Measuring First Nations Engagement in Water Governance in Manitoba
Water governance and ecosystem function in the Canadian prairies are in a state of crisis. Compounding this crisis, and adding complexity, is the relationship between the water governance authority of the state with Canada’s First Peoples. Meaningful engagement of Indigenous peoples in water governance is a necessary requisite to effective water management. This research characterizes the extent and depth of Indigenous engagement in watershed planning in the province of Manitoba, Canada, and examines the degree to which Indigenous rights are incorporated in that engagement. To do so, we analyze evidence of First Nation people’s inclusion in water governance, planning, and management processes. We conducted latent and manifest content analyses of watershed plans to identify the themes and frequency of content related to First Nations and Métis engagement and triangulated results with key informant semi-structured interviews and document reviews of water governance policies and legislation. Overall, we find that Indigenous engagement in Manitoba water governance has increased over time but is still lacking adequate recognition and implementation of Aboriginal and Treaty rights.
Journal Article
Reviewing reservoir operations in the North American West: an opportunity for adaptation
Storage reservoirs are an important part of the water infrastructure in both the USA and Canada. Their operations are important not only for water supply but also for downstream aquatic and riparian ecosystems. Public agencies operate some of the most important water supply reservoirs in both nations: the federal Bureau of Reclamation in the western USA and the provincial Alberta Environment and Parks in Canada’s South Saskatchewan River Basin. This paper examines legal and policy issues affecting potential changes in reservoir operations as an adaptation strategy in the western USA and southern Alberta and considers the two agencies’ policies and practices on reviewing dam operations. Although both agencies appear to recognize the potential value of reviewing and revising their reservoir operating plans, neither makes a practice of doing so. Thus, there is no program to review the operations of water supply projects; by contrast, hydropower project operations have been reviewed and revised in both nations. The two agencies have similar approaches even though federal laws and institutions are important for reservoir operations in the USA, but have little influence in Alberta. Whether federal or provincial, these agencies have operated their projects primarily to benefit local interests.
Journal Article
Exploring Generational Differences Towards Water Resources and Policy Preferences of Water Re-Allocation in Alberta, Canada
It is a challenging task for policy makers to design optimal water resource management policies that accommodate increasing demand while minimizing social and environmental impacts of water extraction. We used four surveys of the general community and irrigators in Alberta’s South-Saskatchewan River Basin to explore the values people assign to water and their preferences for water re-allocation policies, focusing particularly on generational differences. The findings suggest that significant generational differences exist: with the younger generation more environmentally concerned, although it favoured less government intervention in water re-allocation. Generational differences also exist regarding residential and irrigation water use values, and in policy preferences for how to protect the environment and the rights of existing water right holders (irrigators). It was also found that urban–rural context and economic dependence (farmers versus non-farmers) on water mediate generational differences in values and preferences.
Journal Article
Canadian Water Politics
Canadian Water Politics explores the nature of water use conflicts and the need for institutional designs and reforms to meet the governance challenges now and in the future. The editors present an overview of the properties of water, the nature of water uses, and the institutions that underpin water politics. Contributors highlight specific water policy concerns and conflicts in various parts of Canada and cover issues ranging from the Walkerton drinking water tragedy, water export policy, Great Lakes pollution, St Lawrence River shipping, Alberta irrigation and oil production, and fisheries management on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
eBook
Water Management and the Procedural Turn: Norms and Transitions in Alberta
Water management reforms promoting deliberative, decentralized decision making are often accompanied by procedures designed to accommodate a range of stakeholder perspectives. This paper considers the role of political and ethical norms affecting this ‘procedural turn’ in order to understand the management of transitions in complex socio-technical systems. It examines the discourse and practice of water reforms in Alberta, Canada in order to identify how new procedures were designed alongside changes to management institutions. It finds that the existing social and cultural context is an uneasy fit with procedural norms theorized in deliberative models of democracy. Using examples from the Alberta case, it draws out implications for understanding the procedural turn in water management and the role of norms affecting transitions toward sustainability.
Journal Article
BASIN-WIDE IMPACTS OF COMPOUNDS WITH ESTROGEN-LIKE ACTIVITY ON LONGNOSE DACE (RHINICHTHYS CATARACTAE) IN TWO PRAIRIE RIVERS OF ALBERTA, CANADA
Environmental compounds with estrogen- or antiestrogen-like activity can enter rivers from multiple sources, including municipal wastewater and agricultural runoff. We used longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae) to investigate exposure to compounds with estrogen-like activity, which we measured in water at multiple sites in the Oldman and Bow rivers (AB, Canada). We evaluated changes in vitellogenin mRNA with quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, then compared vitellogenin levels to sex ratios and fish performance indices to assess how exposure to compounds with estrogen-like activity affects longnose dace populations. Vitellogenin levels were elevated at least 59 to 110 km downstream of municipalities. In the Oldman River, increased vitellogenin expression and female-biased sex ratios suggest severe endocrine disruption, likely resulting from the combined impacts of municipal wastewater, agriculture, and large cattle operations within the basin. In the Bow River, municipal wastewater may be the major source of compounds with estrogen-like activity that affect longnose dace. The sex ratios were not heavily skewed, as in the more agriculturally influenced Oldman River. We detected organic contaminants in river samples at every site, but the highest concentrations were found downstream of municipalities and in areas with intense agriculture. Vitellogenin levels and sex ratios of longnose dace suggest basin-wide exposure to compounds with estrogen-like activity. Our results demonstrate that it is important to assess rivers at large spatial scales to detect fully the impacts of municipal wastewater and agriculture on fish populations.
Journal Article
The Milk River: deferred water policy transitions in an international waterway
An examination of the manner in which the United States and Canada settled their respective portions of the Milk River basin reveals the historical similarities and differences that characterized the development of the region on both sides of the 49th parallel. Encouraged by government policies and by two railroads, settlers came into this isolated prairie region and water disputes soon erupted. These disputes provoked two far-reaching decisions: the United States Supreme Court's Winters decision in 1908, which granted reserved water rights to the Fort Belknap tribe; and the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, which apportioned the waters of the Milk between Canada and the United States. Since that time, water development in the American portion of the basin has proceeded largely without reference to undeveloped tribal reserved water rights and Alberta's undeveloped share of the river. In the face of recurring water shortages in Montana's segment of the river, two native groups and the province of Alberta now plan to develop their shares of the river. This paper finds the roots of the current situation in the nature of water policies which evolved in the region before 1910. It posits the concept of deferred water policy transitions to describe how policies made by state law, by federal judicial mandate and by international treaty have been implemented differentially in Montana.
Journal Article
