National Roundtable on CBWM

Completed

The key objective of the National Roundtable on Community-Based Water Monitoring was to identify actionable steps the federal government can take to show leadership and support in advancing community-based monitoring of freshwater ecosystems in Canada.

Community-based Water Monitoring (CBWM) is gaining momentum across Canada and is a powerful means of achieving shared water management and sustainability objectives.

To realize the full potential of this growing movement, coordination and leadership is needed at the federal level, across departments, and in concert with non-governmental actors. A partnered approach to water monitoring will drive innovative strategies for gathering accurate data and information to guide management decisions for healthy lake and river ecosystems.

In partnership with WWF-Canada and The Gordon Foundation, Living Lakes Canada convened a multi-sector CBWM Roundtable on November 27-28, 2018 in Ottawa, ON to identify tangible, actionable opportunities for the federal government to support and engage with CBWM groups. All three organizations engage with Community-Based Water Monitoring (CBWM) in different ways and are committed to advancing collaborative and evidence-based water stewardship across Canada.

The rationale for this conference was based on the results of a national CBWM scan that Living Lakes Canada had conducted in partnership with Simon Fraser University and University of Acadia in 2016, 31 which demonstrated an exponential growth in CBWM in Canada over 10 years, and on a survey of CBWM groups led by The Gordon Foundation in partnership with WWF-Canada and Living Lakes Canada in 2017.

The key objective of the Roundtable was to identify actionable steps the federal government can take to show leadership and support in advancing community-based monitoring of freshwater ecosystems in Canada. More than 50 leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous CBWM practitioners, water scientists, policy and data experts developed tangible recommendations on how the federal government can strategically engage with and support CBWM efforts across Canada. Final recommendations were released in 2019.

ENGLISH

FRENCH

CBWM & the Canada Water Agency

In 2020, Living Lakes Canada was co-signer on collaborative letters from water leaders across Canada in support of the Canada Water Agency:

CBWM letter addressed to The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada - July 23 2020

Canada Water Agency letter to The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada - Sept 15 2020

As 60 recommendations will take time to implement, four key actions for the government to take were prioritized in an outreach letter to ECCC in 2021. The vision is that the Canada Water Agency should play a prominent role in supporting these key actions.