Under the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement Mackenzie River Basin Borders: Provincial/Territorial Water Management Agreements Under the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement Presentation to Borders in the North: Yukon Summer Conference June 22, 2016 | Heather Jirousek

The Need for Cooperation: Canada’s largest River basin. Peel Mackenzie – Great Bear Slave Lake Liard Peace Athabasca Yukon (+ federal government) BC NWT Sask. Alberta + The Mackenzie is Canada’s largest river basin (20% of Canada’s landmass and 60% of flow to the Arctic Ocean) 5 jurisdictions and the federal government 6 major sub-basins

Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Agreement: Signed in 1997 Purpose of agreement: Cooperative management of aquatic ecosystem Support the completion of bilateral water management agreements Established the Mackenzie River Basin Board (MRBB)

Mackenzie River Basin Board Up to Thirteen Board Members: Two Members each from Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories (10 in total) One Aboriginal Member One Government Member Up to three members from the Federal Government Board employs one Secretariat Staff Member (based at the Yellowknife Environment Canada office)

How the MRBB Works The MRBB is not a Regulatory Board The MRBB administers the Master Agreement provides a forum for communication recommends studies and establishes technical committees, reports on the state of the aquatic ecosystem, and reports annually to jurisdictional Ministers

MRBB Operations The MRBB meets twice per year The MRBB holds teleconferences to discuss specific issues on an as-needed basis Three Working Committees: Traditional Knowledge and Strengthening Partnerships Steering Committee State of the Aquatic Ecosystem Steering Committee Communications Committee Work of the Board and its Committees is coordinated by the MRBB Secretariat

Traditional Knowledge and Strengthening Partnerships Steering Committee Membership: Aboriginal Board Members and support staff from the jurisdictions Provides advice to the MRBB on how to best incorporate traditional and local knowledge into the business of the MRBB. how to gather traditional and local knowledge to be used in the State of the Aquatic Ecosystem Reports The Mackenzie River Basin Board implements this agreement. Each jurisdiction has one member representing provincial/territorial governments and one First Nation representative; ours is Sharon Peters from NND (Mayo).

SOAER Steering Committee Membership: Board Members or their delegated staff Produces a State of the Aquatic Ecosystem Report (SOAER) every 5 years Steering Committee guides how the report is produced Reports available on the MRBB Website (www.mrbb.ca) The Mackenzie River Basin Board’s 2012 Issues Report: Oil sands development, hydroelectric development, and climate change in the Mackenzie River Basin Mackenzie River Basin State of the Aquatic Ecosystem Report 2003 The SOAER provides a common understanding of the condition of the Mackenzie River basin and the issues facing the basin

Bilateral Water Management Agreements Define how provincial and territorial governments will work together to cooperatively manage transboundary waters. Contain water quality and quantity commitments at key transboundary river crossing points, such as: Liard River at Yukon/BC and BC/NWT borders.

BMWA Locations YK/NWT (Peel River) AB/NWT (Hay & Slave Rivers) SK/NWT (Slave River) BC/Yukon (Liard River) The BC-Yukon bilateral agreement is one piece of a larger puzzle. Liard: 275,000 square kms or approximately 15% of the Mackenzie Basin. 1,115 kms long; 15th longest in Canada 8,500 population BC/NWT (Liard River) BC/Alberta (Liard, Hay & Peace Rivers) 10 AB/SK (Athabasca River)

BMWA Components Purpose and Content Definitions Jurisdictional Water Management Risk Informed Management Information Sharing Research and Studies Surface Water Quantity Surface Water Quality Groundwater Biological Component Monitoring Emergency Response Administration Resolving Disputes and Questions Process Provisions All BWMAs have the same components and strive to be consistent in the language used. Some of these components are fairly standard and we will focus on the ones we feel are of more interest.

Jurisdictional Water Management Each jurisdiction is responsible for decision making in its jurisdiction.

Surface Water Quantity Establish and implement: Classifications Learning Plans Monitoring Water Quantity Objectives Class Flow Stream Crossing Class 1 BC to Yukon Big, Cormier, Little Rancheria River, Redpot 27, South Albert, Thorpe, Tootsee, Unnamed Trib to Crow River, Barney Lake Yukon to BC Coal, Contact, Crow, Hyland, Irons, Liard, Smith, Unnamed Trib to Beaver River Class 2 LaBiche, Beaver Classifications: When classifying surface water, the following is considered: Sensitivity of fish species Seasonal flow fluctuations (i.e. flood versus drought) Stream size Total allocations from WL Draft classifications have been prepared. The majority of waterbodies are class 1. Learning Plans: Will need to be developed for Class 2 water bodies Monitoring: Images depict various ways that surface water quantity can be measured. Monitoring that is currently being done by Federal and Territorial agencies Plan on establishing 2 new stations (stars) Water quantity objectives: Determined based on site-specific knowledge of streamflow

Current Agreements: Signed: 2002: Yukon and NWT 2015: Alberta and NWT 2015: BC and NWT Underway: Yukon and BC for Liard

BC/Yukon BWMA Consultation over the last two years: Teslin Tlingit Council Kaska First Nation governments Acho Dene Koe Tahltan Central Council Yukon Water Board Yukon Energy and Yukon Development Corp Yukon Government Agencies (EMR, Env) Independent Consultant Review

Thank you!