Water Law as a Watershed Endeavour: Federal Inactivity as an Opportunity for Local Initiative

• Main Author: Curran, Deborah
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Journal of Environmental Law and Practice 2015
• Subjects: Tula; Endeavour; First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/7855; https://jelp.ca/

While the federal government has steadily lightened its regulatory role over aspects of federal jurisdiction that influence provincial water management, this jurisdictional space has provided opportunities for sub-national arrangements that address environmental protection. First Nations, provincial and local governments are creating collaborative ecosystem-based management regulations and initiatives that respond to the ecological governance imperatives of planning at a watershed scale, protecting environmental flows, linking decisions about land and water, and adaptive management. Ecological monitoring, watershed-scale planning, decision-making resulting from treaties, protection of riparian areas and watersheds, and water law reform in the west all feature prominently in these sub-national approaches. Any federal action in the future that affects water will be challenged to support these appropriately scaled regulations and decision-making. Tula Foundation Faculty Reviewed