User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Pearse Inquiry on Federal Water Policy

Master Agreement on Apportionment (MAA), which was signed in 1969 by four governments, is the most significant intergovernmental interjurisdictional water management arrangement in Canada, according to the Pearse Inquiry on Federal Water Policy (PPWB). Since that time, water resources have been managed collaboratively in the Canadian Prairie region.

Background
In 1948, four governments—three prairie provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba along with the Government of Canada—established the Prairie Province Water Board (PPWB) —an "intergovernmental framework to manage transboundary waters" that recommended the "best use of interprovincial waters, and to recommend allocations between provinces."

After almost two decades, in 1969, in recognition that changes had occurred in "regional water management philosophies" the role and the operation of the PPWB was changed through the mechanism of the October 30, 1969 Master Agreement on Apportionment (MAA), signed by the four governments who shared responsibility for the interjurisdictional water management. The 1969 MMA reflected the acknowledgment that the actions of one province within its boundaries, may impact water in other provinces another province. This MMA provided an "apportionment formula for eastward flowing interprovincial streams, gave recognition to the problem of water quality, and reconstituted the Prairie Provinces Water Board". The 1969 MMA "continues forever unless all the four signatories formally agree to change it.

The purpose of the 1969 MMA, was to ensure equitable apportionment of water between the three prairie provinces and to protect "surface water quality" and transboundary grounwater aquifers in accordance with the MMA, and to provide a forum for cooperation "order to prevent and resolve transboundary water management conflicts" and to promote cooperation in between the four governments in "transboundary water management."

MAA agreements include 5 schedules, 2 amending agreements, along with the core agreement. PPWB duties and authority are defined in the MMA's Schedule C."

In October 2012, the Charter of the PPWB was revised.

In 1999 the MAA was administered by Manitoba Infrastructure, Alberta Environment and Parks, Saskatchewan Water Security Agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

By 2019, the MMA had been successfully managing the "evolving needs and expectations" of the 3 provinces and the federal government, along with "business and the public" in terms of "shared waterways" for fifty years.

Alberta's water resource management
In 1999, Alberta's new Water Act opened the idea of marketing water rights by introducing the "possibility of separating water rights from the land to which they are appurtenant", according to a May 2010 Journal of Environmental Law and Practice (JELP) article by Nigel Bankes, a University of Calgary, law professor. In the JELP article, Bankes reviewed three November 2009 reports, commissioned by the government of Alberta, on water transfer mechanisms and implications for "protected water, unused water, mechanisms to facilitate transfers, and dealing with shortages". According to Bankes, the 1999 Water Act "initiated water management planning" in the province while continuing the "commitment to the principle of first in time first in right. When the "water management plan for the South Saskatchewan Basin" this plan "became a reality." By 2010, Alberta was "reviewing the transfer mechanisms" described in the 1999 Water Act.

In 2009, the Edmonton-based Alberta Water Council had recommended the creation of a "public registry with listed available water and pricing, tracking and reporting of completed transactions, and linkages to environmental information systems used to inform decisions", to improve Alberta's water allocation transfer system.

South Saskatchewan Basin plan
The Water Act was further realized with the adoption of the province of Alberta's South Saskatchewan Basin plan.