My Speeches

Water For Life Strategy

Posted on Feb 10, 2009

The Speaker: The hon. Member for Battle River-Wainwright,
followed by the hon. Member for Edmonton-Centre.

Water for Life Strategy

Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Water is critical to the
future success of this province; in fact, more important than any
other resource the province has. It’s particularly important to the
constituents of Battle River-Wainwright because we have the only
river that’s not glacially fed and we have regular, cyclical droughts.
The Water for Life strategy was one of the most celebrated documents
we’ve ever had in my constituency, but I see that the docu-


November 25, 2008 Alberta Hansard 2055

ment has been renewed. My questions are to the Minister of
Environment. Why did we need a renewal? What’s new? What’s
different that will help the province better manage our water
resources?

Mr. Renner: Mr. Speaker, I’ve indicated that there is nothing that
is exceptionally new about this document; however, it’s been in
place for five years. It was appropriate that we review the document
to make sure that it’s still appropriate, and what we’ve done is
reinforce the many partners that we have to ensure that our watersheds
remain at a high state. We’ve established the Water Council
and the watershed planning groups. There are 415 locations that are
currently in place and monitoring groundwater throughout the
province. We have plans to increase that over time as well.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Israel is one state in the
world that probably utilizes its water resources better than any other
jurisdiction. That’s not done just because the government takes
effective measures to utilize resources but because the people in that
state recognize the need for water conservation. Now, to make
Albertans understand the importance of water conservation, what is
the minister planning on doing to educate them and to ensure that
they put water conservation practices into use in every household in
Alberta?

Mr. Renner: Well, Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of things that I
would suggest to the member need to come into play. One is a
mindset, and we’re establishing that mindset. I talked last week in
Calgary about how Albertans are finally starting to clue in to the fact
that this is not an unlimited resource. We also have to look at the
way we establish building codes in this province and ensure that, for
example, the absence of grey water recycling in this province, in my
opinion, should come to an end. That needs to be accomplished
through changes in the building code.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, nothing really
happens, nothing grows and proceeds without knowledge and
information, and those always come from research. Water is no
different. So when it comes to establishing best practices and new
practices, we need more research. To the Minister of Advanced
Education and Technology: since your department is thoroughly
responsible for the research that occurs, what are you doing to help
ensure that this Water for Life strategy is effective and utilized to its
maximum?

The Speaker: The hon. minister.

Mr. Horner: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Several initiatives are under
way currently as it relates to the Water for Life strategy that we
started many years ago, as the hon. member mentioned. Just about
two weeks ago we opened at the University of Lethbridge the
Alberta Water and Environmental Science Building, which we
committed $22 million for, a globallyleading state-of-the-art facility
that will be doing research on water and Water for Life. Last year
we established the Alberta Ingenuity Water Research Institute, and
that institute is already bearing fruit in a partnership with General
Electric, which we hope will help us see a 30 per cent reduction in
water usage in the oil sands and SAGD projects. The Speaker: The hon.
Member for Edmonton-Centre, followed by
the hon. Member for Edmonton-Strathcona.