Public Engagement Toward a National Water Security Strategy: Strengthening Water Security in Canada, Together

Fresh water covers about 13% of the country’s landscape.^{Footnote 1} It is home to thousands of species ranging from fish and frogs to moss and aquatic plants, which depend on reliable surface water and groundwater. When freshwater ecosystems are healthy, they provide essential services such as clean water, protection from floods and droughts, and carbon storage.

Clean water supports healthy communities. Everybody relies on water for drinking water and household needs. Lakes and rivers supply drinking water to more than two thirds of the Canadian population, while groundwater supplies the remaining 30% and is the drinking water source for most of the rural population.^{Footnote 2} Lack of access to safe drinking water and wastewater services remains a challenge in some rural and remote communities, including a disproportionate number of Indigenous communities.

Many Canadian economic sectors depend on water, making it essential to competitiveness and job creation. For example:

• Farms and ranches need water to sustain their crop and livestock production.
• Water helps keep manufacturing industries running. Paper, petroleum, and metal manufacturing all need water for cooling, condensing, steam generation, and other processing steps.^{Footnote 3}
• Mining also uses water in many ways, from processing to dust suppression and transportation.
• More than half of Canada’s electricity is generated directly from water: hydroelectricity provided 54.9% of our electricity in 2025.^{Footnote 4}
• Waterbodies are some of the most renowned tourist attractions in Canada. Almost one third of Canadians visit waterbodies for recreation or cultural activities at least once a month.^{Footnote 5}

As many communities across the country continue to grow, freshwater ecosystems and water supplies are increasingly put under pressure. Pollution makes its way to water through effluent pipes, spills, surface runoff, and precipitation. Water quality is generally better in waterbodies with less human influences like large population centres and development.

Aging infrastructure and evolving public safety and security threats, such as cyber-attacks, also make it more expensive and more complicated to manage drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure.^{Footnote 6}

At the same time, climate change continues to affect water. All aspects of the water cycle are changing in complex ways, including precipitation, river flows, lake levels, mountain snowpack and glacier extent, and groundwater recharge.^{Footnote 7} Water quantity and availability is now less predictable and less reliable. These changes disrupt our lives, our environment, and our economy. For example:

• Flooding is Canada’s most common and costly disaster. A 2022 estimate of residential flooding in Canada found that the cost of damages could reach $2.9 billion per year.^{Footnote 8}
• Droughts can occur anywhere in the country and have wide-ranging consequences, including for the agriculture sector. For example, the 2021 drought across western Canada resulted in a 47% decrease in Saskatchewan crop production compared with the previous year, and an estimated $75 million loss in Manitoba crop sales.^{Footnote 9Footnote 10}
• Drier conditions increase the intensity and extent of wildfires, which release carbon in the atmosphere. Fires can affect freshwater ecosystems and water infrastructure, and can also transform landscapes in ways that increase flood risk.^{Footnote 11}

Freshwater ecosystems provide countless benefits, including food and clean water. Floodplains and wetlands, including peatlands, act as natural infrastructure: they filter and store water, reduce erosion, and limit the impacts of floods and droughts. Acting now to safeguard these ecosystems and their species is an investment in the future.

In addition to helping preserve these services, more efforts to prevent water pollution would help reduce or avoid treatment costs, especially for groundwater, where clean-up can be extremely costly and sometimes impossible.^{Footnote 12} Maintaining the carbon that is already stored in freshwater ecosystems mitigates climate change.

Information is power. Across the country, scientists, engineers, and Indigenous Knowledge Holders can help transform knowledge into action. A better understanding of surface water and groundwater in Canada can help us shift from reacting to water-related risks to getting ahead of them. Transparency supports informed decision-making. With the right information, businesses, governments, communities, and individuals can better adjust to changes in water quantity or quality and plan for more efficient water use. Canada-made innovations can also facilitate this adaptation.  

From cutting edge treatment and reuse systems to advanced prediction tools, water-focused technologies can stimulate the economy while solving water challenges and protecting the environment. Workers in the water sector play an essential role, and training water operators in current and innovative practices improves service delivery.

Water security also supports food security: for example, new irrigation technologies can make crop production more resilient. Reliable access to water also supports economic activity across sectors. The water technology sector has potential to grow and Canada has the expertise to increase its leadership in the global market.

As communities change, development can be water-smart, nature positive, and climate resilient. Expansions and upgrades to existing drinking water and wastewater systems can support efforts to build more housing. New neighborhoods can be designed to better withstand intense rains, rapid snowmelt, flooding, and thawing permafrost. When planning takes water into account, the infrastructure lasts longer and performs better.