Link to the full article -- here are just 3 paragraphs:
The aim of the CWA (Canada Water Agency), which is expected to be running by 2022, is to modernize water policy in Canada amid myriad pressures facing the nation from climate change. But its proponents say it is also an opportunity to put Indigenous communities at the heart of governance – restoring agency and fairness in water policy but also making smarter policy.
“We’ve seen the benefits of having the Public Health Agency of Canada being in place when the pandemic hit, it’s hard to imagine how things would have been without one,” Dr. Pomeroy says. “But I’m in a hurry. I see all the water problems, and I would include the fires in British Columbia as part of our water problems. ... So we need this agency yesterday, because it’s one of our principal ways of dealing with the impacts of climate change in this country.”
Ms. Phare worries that the CWA will resort to the status quo if Indigenous governments don’t design it from the ground up, starting now. “You don’t design an institution and then invite people to it if you want reconciliation,” she says. “If we want to solve the water problem together, we build the institutions together and then we implement the institution together. We’re accountable for the institution. Together – we share in its success together.”
