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FRESHWATER
The Case for a Water Status Report
C
ANADA HAS TWO MILLION freshwater
lakes and seven per cent of the world’s renewable freshwater supply, the third largest of any
country after Brazil and Russia. Freshwater
covers nine per cent of Canada’s surface area.
The Great Lakes alone contain 20 per cent of global
fresh surface water, shared between Canada and the
United States. Fresh water is important to our health
and wellbeing, to our economy, and our environment. It is important culturally and spiritually to
Indigenous peoples. It is part of our national identity.
Yet despite its importance, it is often said that Canadians take freshwater for granted.One of the reasons
Michael Goffin is the Bruce Water
Policy Fellow in Toronto Metropolitan
University’s School of Public Policy.
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WATER C AN ADA • JULY/AUGUS T 2025
may be that Canadians lack information on the state of
Canada’s freshwater. That is concerning for a country
that is facing a looming freshwater crisis. As we feel more
and more the effects of climate change, Canada will face
increased frequency and severity of flood and drought
conditions, deteriorating freshwater quality and unprecedented changes to freshwater ecosystems.
Canada has no national report on the state of the
nation’s freshwater quality, quantity and use, meaning that
neither Canadians nor Parliamentarians receive regular
comprehensive reporting on the changing state of fresh
water. The Canada Water Act (1970) requires that a
report on “operations under this Act” be laid before Parliament as soon as possible after the end of each fiscal year.
That report is also made available to Canadians through
publishing on canada.ca. However, the term operations
refers to the activities performed by the Government of
Canada to implement the Act and not to the state of the
fresh water the Act is intended to manage and protect.
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
Getty Images
Canada needs a national state of freshwater report BY MICHAEL GOFFIN
