Water Ways: A CBWN Forum on Water Governance - attachment below

April 14 and 15 2011

Nelson BC

CBWN Website: http://www.cbwn.ca/

thank you Brian for volunteering on this important forum

Columbia Basin Watershed Network

Water Ways: A CBWN Forum on Water Governance A report by Brian Passey – April 15 2011

On Thursday April 14^th I drove over to Nelson to attend the gathering of interested people, in government, First Nations, NGOs and private individuals’ mostly representing lake and river stewardship groups.

We started at 8.00am with a sign in session and an introduction to the purpose and expected outcomes of the Forum. Approximately 40 people all told.

The Facilitator was Janet Morton who reviewed the process of generating discussion and described the expectation that we would be more knowledgeable about how water was used, controlled and protected.

Under Janets direction we were shown some ways to create more wide ranging discussion to produce compromise between differing opinions. The outcome of this session, having been completed out of our chairs and on our feet, enabled us to meet and talk to a number of attendees about common interests.

Steve Litke of the Fraser Basin Council discussed who makes decisions about water and watersheds and how the decisions are made through consultation and with knowledgeable professionals. Water governance, including watersheds, is the development and application of management decisions on water bodies and their watersheds. This is done in collaboration with NGOs, First Nations and other stakeholders.

Janet took over after coffee and started a brainstorming session on 'What would we like our watersheds to look like in 20 years.' There were a number of ideas put up on wall charts designated for each discussion group.

Deborah Curran, of The Environmental Law Centre at UVic, gave a presentation on the law dealing with water governance – in particular the application and difficulties of the water licensing system: An example is that water running off a house roof may not be collected if the downstream water license holder is entitled to that water. New considerations in water governance now include Aboriginal rights and entitlements also including ground water licensing. New licenses will be issued on a priority use rather than the current first come first served rights. The RDEK is currently considering water centric zoning to ensure that surface rights are given an orderly priority.

Ted White, from the Water Sustainability Branch of the Provincial Government, talked about the development process for a new Water Act. Most noteworthy is the use of Facebook and Twitter to invite public input and discussion. The Water Act will deal with priority uses in a climate of scarcity including watershed protection. This will include:

Protection of stream health and aquatic environments.

1. Consideration of water in land use decisions

2. Regulation of groundwater.

Ted noted that BC is the last province to not regulate groundwater.

Kindy Gosal gave a full presentation of the Columbia River Treaty both its development, function and the future of upcoming renegotiation of the water control and facets of downstream use. The next couple of years will generate a process of manoeuvring between the parties to maximise advantages of the operation of the treaty.

At dinner I was able to present and generate discussion on the Jimsmith Lake Watershed Baseline Assessment to all attendees while sitting down to dinner. But because of this I was unable to listen to other groups successes.

On Friday morning Nelson Jatel, Director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, talked about the function of the Water Board. In the context of ecological, social, political, fiscal, geographical and cultural factors the water board involves all stakeholders in the practical application of the rules governing the maintenance of aquatic systems. They oversee, with the approval of government authorities and public users, the application of the law in potentially conflicting situations.

Graham Watt, planner with the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance, talked about water governance and how it works in partnership with Alberta watershed Councils. This gave us a good insight to how co-operation can work between NGOs and governments.

Heather Leschied of Wildsight gave an interesting presentation on the development of the Lake Windermere Foreshore Management Guidelines and the resulting creation of the East Kootenay Integrated Lake Management Partnership. Heather spoke also of the establishment of the Lake Windermere Ambassadors and future work on Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. EKILMP has guided the production of Foreshore Management Guidelines for 9 East Kootenay lakes, including Jimsmith.

Paul Christy, Chairman of the Lake Windermere Ambassadors, described their work in the community and some of the future aims to get government recognition of the work they are doing.

Between almost all of the presentations Janet stimulated the participants with more brainstorming sessions. The Forum finished with a wrap up at about 2.30 on Friday 15^th.