WC148 MayJune 2026 - Magazine - Page 36
FRESHWATER
“The national freshwater data strategy aims to help
establish guidelines and principles for how freshwater
data should be organized, stored and shared in Canada.”
The webinar presenters were CWA freshwater policy and
engagement directorate director general Gemma Boag, senior policy advisor for the federal government’s Office of the
Chief Science Advisor Alexandre Bourque-Viens, Canadian
Institute for Health Information (CAHI) data stewardship
initiative director Maureen Kelly and CWA chief data officer
Jim M.C. Young. Boag outlined the progress made thus far
as the CWA and other organizations work toward a national
freshwater strategy.
“While Canada has about seven per cent of the world’s
renewable supply of fresh water, it’s unevenly distributed
throughout the country and it’s not always available in the
quantities that we need and when we need it,” Boag said.
She added climate change means growing pressure on
freshwater supply in the form of floods, droughts and
other events along with climate change infrastructure that
is aging faster than it can be renewed.
“(There are) contaminants that weren’t on our radar a
generation ago and a steady, ongoing loss of biodiversity
in our lakes, rivers and wetlands,” Boag added.
She stressed the importance of freshwater to not only
the ecosystem but the political and economic health of
the country.
“What happens to water affects everything else. Our
food, our housing, our health and our economic competitiveness,” she said. “Addressing these challenges along
with taking advantage of the tremendous opportunities
provided by clean, accessible freshwater depends on our
ability to act collaboratively.”
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Boag said a national freshwater data strategy cuts across
CWA’s core mission, actioned through:
• restoring and protecting with partners trans-boundary
and nationally significant ecosystems,
• anticipate and proactively respond to Canada’s most
pressing freshwater challenges and opportunities,
• create impactful partnerships to responsibly steward
and sustainably use Canada’s trans-boundary freshwater
ecosystems,
• cultivate water awareness in Canada,
• and translate freshwater science and data into knowledge to inform decision making.
“The national freshwater data strategy is an opportunity to meaningfully work towards each of these priorities
in collaboration with partners,” Boag said.
Work began on a freshwater data strategy in February.
2024 she said, “and continuing development of this strategy has continued to be a priority for CWA since it was
established as a stand-alone agency in the federal system
in Oct. 2024.”
“The main goal of the data strategy put simply is to
make it easier for Canadians to find, access and use and
combine freshwater data,” she said. “But that’s not a
simple task.”
“Canada has an abundance of freshwater data but it’s not
always easily available or easy to integrate across data sets.
The national freshwater data strategy aims to help establish
guidelines and principles for how freshwater data should be
organized, stored and shared in Canada,” Boag said.
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
