Collaborative Proposal Creation
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Proposal text
Funding for Saskatchewan’s Global Water Futures Observatories will be made a permanent part of the Federal budget.
Funding will also be allocated on a permanent basis for a chosen or newly created Federal Institute to interface with the University’s data collection techniques to produce accessible information and reports.
The mandate of both organizations will be expanded to monitor all available fresh water sources in Canada, as well as producing accessible reports and policy recommendations for public and private agencies.
Said Federal Institute will include significant Indigenous membership, and will prohibit anyone with a history of being an executive or management from oil industries, mining or other polluting industries from holding executive roles in the Federal Institute.
Type of Proposal
Public policy that the party would represent
Objective / Benefit
Water insecurity is an increasingly prevalent threat to national security in the age of climate change. Water is life; it is the foundation of every nation. To ensure access to this precious resource, it is essential to understand the status of the freshwater in Canada on a stable, ongoing basis. In order to ensure this data is available to Canadians for the foreseeable future, the Federal government should permanently fund Saskatchewan’s Global Water Futures Observatories initiative to continually monitor the available water in Canada. This includes ground water, snow packs, lakes, rivers, rainfall, etc. They will coordinate with a chosen/created Federal Institute, and their mandate will be expanded to monitor water usage and rainfall.
If your proposal replaces an existing policy or policies, which one does it replace?
N/A
List any supporting evidence for your proposal
Climate change, global drought, work of Saskatchewan’s Global Water Futures Observatories
Does this proposal affect any particular group and what efforts have been made to consult with the group or groups?
N/A
Jurisdiction: Is this proposal under federal jurisdiction?
Yes
Please indicate the language the proposal is being submitted in.
English
This proposal has been accepted because:
78.3% of members voted in favour of adopting this motion in the all-member vote.
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Conversation with Tyler Beaulac
Hey Mark! The primary purpose of the bill is to take a current academic initiative run by Universities and turn it into a permanent Federal program, based on the individuals who are currently spearheading that work. These individuals, as members of the University who are involved in water-testing, are already associated with many of those industries, because those industries need to test water. Including this amendment would render them unable to participate in their own work. Since, I feel like your worry is that these industries may corrupt the information for political reasons, wouldn't it make more sense to include an over-sight provision?
Also, the Employment Equity Act compels agencies, like this federal institution, to include a significant number of Indigenous people on all levels of staffing. At the same time, including this specific provision would raise the spectre of "quotas" and immediately polarize our bill. This would make it nearly impossible to request the Liberal and NDP governments to support our Law, without costing them votes in the next election. It will become a political hot-potato that's stuck in committee forever, and we need this functioning on a national scale by the end of the decade. I completely support the motivation of Indigenous inclusion that compels your heart in this matter, but we need a method that includes Indigenous people without making it nearly impossible to pass the bill from our political posture. How about including a monitoring station near every reserve, so it makes it convenient to hire local Indigenous communities, which would have a similar effect of including our Indigenous kin?
Hi Tyler. I understand your feedback, you're obviously deeply tied to this ongoing work. You're correct about my concerns from industry corrupting the data. Maybe you'll think I'm cynical (I am!) or paranoid, these big $ industries have a long history of co-opting programs like this if they're allowed in (e.g. West Virginia, western Africa, northern Alberta and BC, Gulf of Mexico, Iran/Saudi/Middle East, Oklahoma & Louisiana fracking, etc). Oversight from government has also been run over or corrupted. I believe that the study can be run independently of industry, but still use their data. Even there, I'd be a lot more comfortable having the university taking the samples and performing the testing, to minimize any possible tainting of the data.
I sincerely feel that direct Indigenous participation in this specific body is absolutely necessary. I'm fine with rewording my amendment to remove any thought of a quota (never my intention!). I also understand your point that we can't make it something impractical to pass. If the Employment Equity Act will meet my intent without jeopardizing the bill, that's fine with me.
You've raised some really good practical concerns, which I appreciate. You also seem to fully understand where I'm coming from with my amendment. I'm hoping we can accommodate both concerns without making the proposal impossible to achieve. Thanks for your thoughtful feedback!
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