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A view of the Fraser River in Richmond, B.C. Wade Grant, parliamentary secretary to Environment and Climate Change Minister, said the Canada Water Agency is engaging stakeholders across a range of sectors.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The federal government is asking Canadians to help shape the country’s first water security strategy as competing demands, climate change and tensions with the U.S. raise the stakes for the country’s freshwater resources.
The Canada Water Agency this week launched public engagement for the strategy, which aims to improve freshwater management, protect ecosystems and secure water supplies.
Wade Grant, parliamentary secretary to Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin, who is responsible for the Canada Water Agency, announced the launch of public engagement at a news conference in Richmond, B.C., on Thursday. Similar announcements also took place in Winnipeg and Toronto.
Mr. Grant called water security “one of the defining challenges of our time.”
“With increasingly frequent severe droughts, forest fires or floods impacting every corner of this country, we can see that water availability and water quality are changing,” said Mr. Grant, who is the MP for Vancouver Quadra. “This is the direct result of climate change. We know more must be done.”
The Canada Water Agency was launched in 2024 with a mandate to improve freshwater management and protection across the country. The national water security strategy was first announced in March.
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Liberal member of Parliament Wade Grant responds during question period in the House of Commons. June 12. Mr. Grant says the development of the strategy is independent from threats directed from the U.S., which has increasingly challenged Canada’s water sovereignty.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Mr. Grant said the Canada Water Agency is engaging provinces and territories; First Nations, Inuit, and Métis partners; and other stakeholders across a range of sectors. The public is invited to weigh in until Oct. 26, with a summary of findings to be released later this year.
There were few details on how a national water security strategy will improve upon current systems. Asked whether his government would prioritize freshwater resources for human and agricultural use over water-intensive artificial intelligence data centres, Mr. Grant said the agency recognizes the importance of finding more water-protective ways to power AI.
On securing safe drinking water in First Nations communities, Mr. Grant said his government is working with Indigenous communities to ensure that solutions come from the ground up. As of Aug. 13, there were 40 long-term drinking water advisories in 38 First Nations communities across Canada.
Mr. Grant said the development of the strategy is independent from threats directed from the United States, which has increasingly challenged Canada’s water sovereignty. President Donald Trump has threatened to redirect Canadian water to the U.S., criticized the Columbia River Treaty as unfair to Americans and signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.
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Mr. Grant made his remarks at a venue located on the banks of the Fraser River, which is the fourth largest river in Canada by volume and home to the Port of Vancouver, the country’s largest port. Activity across the Fraser River basin generates about 10 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product.
At the event, he announced $480,000 in funding for three partner-led projects under the Fraser River Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative, a program managed by the Canada Water Agency to support projects that protect and restore the river basin’s freshwater ecosystem.
Among the recipients, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation is receiving $169,000 over two years to work with Indigenous and local communities to bolster water quality monitoring and pollution reduction efforts across nearly half of the lower Fraser River basin.
Peter Ross, a senior scientist at the foundation who was in attendance at Thursday’s event, said the funding will go toward expanding a water pollution monitoring program.
First launched in late 2021 after B.C. experienced catastrophic flooding, Raincoast’s Healthy Waters program will now transition from scientist-led monitoring toward Indigenous and community-led stewardship through training, workshops, online resources and a public symposium, he said.
“I envisage a program that helps to transition us over to a more sustainable water quality monitoring initiative for future generations,” he said.
Working with partners in more than a dozen B.C. watersheds to examine almost 600 pollutants in source water, river water, road runoff, tap water and ocean water, the group has already identified “a number of concerns” in Fraser River watersheds, Dr. Ross said. That includes the presence of hydrocarbons; PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”; and 6PPD-quinone, a toxic chemical byproduct from rubber tires that is killing local salmon.
The Canada Water Agency launches public engagement as it is being asked to do more with less. As part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s 2025 budget, which sought to slash the federal bureaucracy and reorient the national economy to respond to U.S. tariff pressures, the agency is facing a $3.8-million funding reduction by 2029-2030, on top of another $1.2-million in “ongoing” savings.
The agency’s 2026-2027 departmental plan said the cuts are expected to result in the loss of 13 full-time equivalent positions by 2028-2029.