Drying up

Amidst all the discussion about how the Cons are looking to dismantle some of Canada's existing civil service structure, the Canadian Press reports that the Cons are also both ignoring their own promises and putting Canada's future at risk by failing to deal with looming water problems:

Canada’s stores of fresh water are not as plentiful as once thought, and water shortages threaten to pinch the economy and pit provinces against each other, says a newly released document.

An internal report drafted last December by Environment Canada warns that climate change and a growing population will further drain resources...

The Conservatives promised a national water strategy in last fall’s throne speech but have been criticized since for announcing only piecemeal projects. The Tories, like the previous Liberal government, are also behind in publishing annual reports required by law that show how water supplies are used and maintained.

The last assessment posted on Environment Canada’s website is from 2005-06.

The internal draft report says the government currently does not know enough about the country’s water to properly manage it...

(G)overnment data on the country’s groundwater reserves is deemed "sparse and often inadequate."

That’s in contrast to the United States, which has spent more than a decade mapping its underground water reserves. Canada shares aquifers with the U.S., and the report says: "Our lack of data places Canada at strategic disadvantage for bilateral negotiations with the U.S."

No one from Environment Canada was immediately available to comment.

The report forecasts droughts in the Prairies and groundwater shortages in British Columbia and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin.

There are already signs of water shortages in the Great Lakes. Lake Superior, the largest of the five, fell to its lowest level on record last September. Lakes Michigan and Huron were about 50 centimetres below their historical average levels last fall.

The report says a 0.08- to 1.18-metre drop in Great Lakes water levels costs the hydro-electric industry between $240 million and $350 million each year.

Needless to say, there isn't much about how the Cons have handled the water issue that differs from how they fail to handle most problems. But the fact that all the problems are all coming out at the same time should give Canadians pause about how their country is being run.

After all, not only have the Cons allowed Canada to fall even further behind in tracking just how many resources we have (and how much risk they may face), but they've gone years without producing required reports to at least inform Canadians about how badly they've managed the issue. And if the Harper government indeed doesn't care about either the law or the obvious policy ramifications of Canada's water resources, then there's ever more reason to wonder how they could even pretend to be competent to run the country.