1. 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

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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).

8. 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 (
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

9. 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.

10. 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)

11. 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.

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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. Thank you!