Water Haller: Advocating for greater federal water leadership
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We haven’t been able to get together at events as we normally have in the past, so you haven’t been able to hear my updates that I bring to all the regional and national events I can get to. Your CWWA has been VERY active at the national level advocating for our water utility sector.
I’ll start by clarifying my headline. I am not suggesting there has not been federal leadership on water…but we can always be better right? This government’s Infrastructure Plan has seen over $100 billion budgeted for infrastructure with $20 billion dedicated to water. This was a massive improvement from the previous government’s $10 billion plan; with no mention of water.
Now, as we watch the federal government’s response to COVID-19, we know that they are also preparing an infrastructure stimulus plan. CWWA has been writing to the appropriate ministers, and to the Prime Minister himself, advocating for the water sector to be identified as a priority. We have been speaking to the importance of the water/wastewater sector to community health and to the Canadian economy. We have also tied the potential of well-planned water projects to the greater environment.
Just after the last election, the Prime Minister issued mandate letters to each of the newly appointed ministers. Within the mandate for the new Minister of Environment and Climate Change was a directive to establish a new Canada Water Agency. For many years, CWWA has been vocal about the need for a more coordinated federal focus on water. We have noted that "water issues” fall under a dozen or more ministries, and it would be helpful to have some coordinating body, an agency or even a parliamentary secretary to champion water issues and facilitate inter-departmental collaboration. So CWWA has been promoting the development of this agency sooner rather than later. We have also identified the CWWA as THE voice of Canada’s water utilities, offered our support and we speak to the importance of our inclusion as contributors to represent our sector.
Of course we are not alone on these advocacy efforts. One of CWWA’s four main goals is to collaborate with other national organizations. I want to thank the leadership of our CWWA Climate Change Committee for their dedication spearheading these efforts and building national coalitions with so many partners.
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Meanwhile, our CWWA Drinking Water Committee continues to monitor and comment on work underway at Health Canada concerning the Canada Drinking Water Guidelines and were the leaders behind our Reopening of Buildings work, available on our website. Hear all about that at our August webinar.
Our CWWA Utility Leadership Committee is working on a guidance document with the working title, "Toward a Sustainable Utility” while also monitoring the federal infrastructure plans. Hear about all this at the September webinar.
Our CWWA Wastewater Committee has been active promoting a federal policy on wipes, while continuing to provide input to Environment Canada on the Wastewater System Effluent Regulations (WSER). The WSER is actually under review and CWWA is being called upon to comment for our sector. Hear more about this at the October webinar.
Our CWWA Security and Emergency Management Committee has been actively involved in the teleconferences of the Extended National Cross Sector Forum (E-NCSF) regarding COVID-19 organized by Public Safety Canada (PSC) and in the national surveys on COVID-19 responses developed by PS Critical Infrastructure Directorate.
We are excited to partner with Water Canada magazine to present this four-part series. Here are the WOW – Window on Water webinar dates:
July 29 – Security and Emergency Management
August 19 – Water Quality
September 16 – Infrastructure w Canada Infrastructure Bank and FCM
October 21 – Wastewater
Sign up now! https://www.watercanada.net/window-on-water/
