Mr. Chair and committee members, on behalf of the Assiniboine River Basin Initiative, thank you for the opportunity to present before you today.
The Assiniboine River basin is a sub-basin within the Lake Winnipeg basin, which comprises the Qu'Appelle, Souris and Assiniboine rivers. The basin is approximately 162,000 square kilometres and home to over 1.7 million people.
As an organization, we are a multi-stakeholder non-profit that operates in both Canada and the United States. Our stakeholders include citizens, provincial and state governments, local governments, first nations tribes, Métis representatives, agricultural organizations, conservation and water-user organizations, cottage associations, business and industry groups, and all others who wish to come to the table on behalf of water.
It's my understanding that the committee has been asked to examine numerous topics in their consideration of responsibilities for freshwater protection and management throughout Canada. One of these topics is watershed management. That is the topic I was asked in my invitation to address.
As an organization, we have grown and matured since our inception. It has become clear that all stakeholders, at all levels, have vested interests in the role of true watershed management—not just management within a jurisdictional boundary of the watershed or basin in question, since we know water flows across the land and crosses these boundaries, be they municipal, provincial, state or international. We also know there are several smaller watersheds that merge and flow into the larger basins. For example, the Assiniboine starts in Saskatchewan, as do the Qu'Appelle and the Souris. They all cross provincial, state or international boundaries, so it's very important that we work together when we look at true watershed management.
Here in our basin, the flood of 2011 drove home the need for stakeholders across the Assiniboine River basin to come together to learn, understand and work on watershed management outside of jurisdictional boundaries. This flood devastated our basin. Thousands of people were displaced, and thousands of homes, businesses and acres of agricultural land were impacted. This was followed by a flood in 2014, which saw similar devastation across the basin. The flip side, of course, is drought, which we are experiencing at this point in time, along with dry agronomic conditions in various years. It is very real and needs to be looked at.
The underpinning of our organization is that a complete watershed approach must be embraced when looking at watershed management. There must be recognition that jurisdictional boundaries need to be reviewed. Legislation and policies need to be appreciated, but at the same time there is a need to work across them. The most important thing is transboundary communication, education, information sharing and co-operation on a watershed management scale. This is vitally important to our success as we move forward. Resilience is what our members are asking for. Integrated watershed management relates not only to water quality and quantity but also to increasing awareness about the importance and value of water—not only surface water but also groundwater. This management should consider ecosystem health, biodiversity, fish, wildlife and wetlands through applied best management practices and incentive opportunities for landowners.
The land issue should also be taken into consideration, because there is an interface between water and land management. This can be through regenerative agriculture, irrigation improvements, management of natural areas, storing water on the landscape and a host of other tools.
Investment in science, research and technology needs to occur, in order to optimize water management to the best of our ability. There is the development of various models and tools, such as Aquanty's hydrogeospheric model, the prairie hydrology design and analysis product, LiDAR and others. Tools need to be put into the tool box to allow watershed managers to do the best job they can.
We also need to recognize and consider the three-legged stool of sustainability, those legs being social, economic and environmental. As an organization, we have worked across our basin with various organizations, such as the International Souris River Board, the Shellmouth Dam liaison committee and the Saskatchewan water council. We're engaged in research with the prairie water research committee under global water futures, the University of Regina, the University of Manitoba and a multitude of others.
On behalf of ARBI, I would encourage the committee to work across jurisdictional boundaries, be they municipal, provincial, or in some cases international, when considering water management. Communication, coordination and co-operation are all common goals leading to success.
To invest in working with grassroots stakeholders and organizations such as ourselves, the indigenous community, agriculture, conservation and a host of others—