Welcome to Dry February: You’re probably going to feel the need for a good stiff drink when you realize just how dry things are likely to be in Alberta this year!
The United Conservative Party (UCP) appears to have finally cottoned on to the fact the province, which relies on melting snow and rain for all of its water, is facing a major drought this spring and summer.
Rivers and reservoirs throughout Alberta are at or near historic lows. So is snowpack.
So, yes, Dry February is almost certainly going to be followed by dry March, dry April, dry May, dry June and dry July.
By dry August, the whole province will probably so dry that “as dry as Cardston” will take on an entirely new meaning!
Better late than never, one supposes, Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said in a news release Wednesday that the government has created a “Drought Command Team” to get “major water licence holders to strike water-sharing agreements in the Red Deer River, Bow River and Old Man River basins.”
The Command Team – oh my, these Conservatives do love their faux military terminology, don’t they? – was supposed to get to work last week.
“This effort will be the largest water-sharing negotiation to have ever occurred in Alberta’s history,” Schulz boasted.
“If a severe drought occurs,” the release went on – although, barring a miracle, there is no if about it – “these agreements would see major users use less water to help others downstream.”
Possible translation: We’re all going to be asked to do without baths and keep our showers short if there’s going to be enough water for fracking! And if you’re a farmer, better start lobbying now for relief from Ottawa – which the UCP will doubtless be blaming for the drought soon, if they’re not already.
I’m not kidding about that, by the way. As the Globe and Mail’s Emma Graney reported in a tweet thread Tuesday, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric MicIver told participants in a telephone town hall that day for water licence holders that the government “might also have citizens take shorter showers, ensure they have low-flow toilets.” (Whether his tone was serious or otherwise isn’t clear from Graney’s thread.)
McIver also generously said “he’s prepared to *not* turn his yard sprinkler on all summer to make sure livestock, crops and people get water,” Graney noted, a sacrifice she seemed to find laudable.
One wonders how being asked to do that would go over with the UCP’s conspiracy-minded, Q-adjacent base, though.
I’m also not kidding that the always thirsty fracking industry wants even more water.
Indeed, the notorious Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has been lobbying the Alberta Government for months to be allowed to water down the Water Act to allow its members to engage in the environmentally dangerous practice of transferring water between major basins.
Climate change? Don’t expect that to be part of the discussion, at least in Alberta. As Schulz said during the town hall, this is “a societal issue, not an environmental issue.” Agriculture Minister R.J. Sigurdson also took part in that event – which appears to have been more or less ignored by Alberta media.
Meanwhile in Edmonton
We’ve already been practicing water rationing in the Edmonton area, where we’re still allowed to take showers, but only if they’re short, and we’re not allowed to use our dishwashers, thanks to an equipment breakdown at an Epcor Utilities Inc. water treatment plant last Monday.
Need to wash your car? If you live in Edmonton this week, that’s probably the first good reason you’ve had to drive to Red Deer in a couple of years!
According to Epcor, several pumps at the treatment plant went out at once because their electrical wiring wasn’t up to snuff, resulting in a clear-water shortage in Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, Stony Plain, Spruce Grove, Leduc, Beaumont and Fort Saskatchewan.
Why Edmonton’s privatized water system is so fragile it can’t operate properly if more than one pump stops working is an interesting question. Don’t expect answers to it any time soon.
Epcor says it’s making progress on fixing the pumps and has promised we should be able to flush sewers and wash cars again by Sunday. Meanwhile, though, we’re getting some practice for next summer.
Seeing as Epcor is a private-sector company, naturally one of the big commentary brains at the Edmonton Sun-Journal blamed its problems on the fact it used to be in the public sector. One wonders how he would explain the obvious deficiencies of Postmedia, which has never had the excuse of being publicly owned.
But, I digress …
Getting back to those negotiations led by the Command Team, a big problem is that Alberta’s water licensing scheme means, as Schulz put it in a letter to the province’s major water licence holders, they will have to “be asked to voluntarily take less water to ensure there is water for as many users as possible.” (Emphasis added.)
That’s because, as University of Calgary Law Professor Emeritus Nigel Bankes explained on social media, there is “absolutely nothing” in the Water Act that allows the minister to prescribe terms of a water-sharing agreement.
Brace yourselves for fire
Because of the drought, Albertans will also need to brace themselves for more, and more intense, fires this summer.
In an open letter to the government Wednesday, the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association called urgently for disclosure of Alberta’s wildfire preparedness strategy, if indeed one exists.
Expressing their concern the drought means Alberta will see “a wildfire season mirroring last year’s devastating events,” the association warned that the UCP policy of relying on municipalities to pay the freight “is not sustainable.”
“There is a growing concern among Fire Chiefs across the province of the lack of communication of what the plan is, allocation of funds compared to previous years and plan for the recruitment and deployment of firefighters and equipment,” the letter said.
“It is imperative to have a clear, well-resourced, and collaborative strategy that involves all levels of government to effectively manage and mitigate the risks of wildfires in Alberta,” the letter said.
Premier Danielle Smith, however, is focusing on issues that appeal more to the UCP base than boring old water – like bullying trans kids and ensuring Albertans have access to plastic straws.
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