Held on May 13, 2020

In April 2019, GWF and partners issued a public call to action, Water Security for Canadians: Solutions for Canada’s Emerging Water Crisis. It called for modernization of Canada’s water institutions, governance, policies and legislation to better address the emerging national water crisis.

In late 2019, the Government of Canada announced the development of a Canada Water Agency and review of federal water policies and laws by the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment.

Responding to this opportunity, we are continuing the discussion with water practitioners, agencies, organizations and rightsholders across the country. We invite you to join us for a virtual panel discussion on water related issues and needs that a Canada Water Agency can address and provide, and how a Canada Water Agency can compliment existing regional water management issues and mandates.

Featuring Terry Duguid, MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada and Chaired by Dr. Thomas Axworthy of Massey College, you will hear from experts in water science and governance and guests from provincial and municipal perspectives, examining Canadian water issues and the science, policy and the collaborative responses needed to tackle the emerging water-climate crisis.

For more information

Carolyn Aubry-Wake gave a French language talk on glaciers and forest fires on Wednesday, May 13th.  Listen to this talk and others here.

Image courtesy of RMOToday.com

The following is an excerpt from an article in RMOToday.com:

BOW VALLEY – With warmer weather throughout the Rocky Mountains, experts and municipal officials are keeping an eye on snowpack levels and weather forecasts as well as their potential effects on the Bow Valley’s waterways.

With a network of 35 high-elevation weather stations across the Rocky Mountains – from the Athabasca Glacier to the top of Fortress Mountain – director of the Canmore-based University of Saskatchewan’s Cold Water Laboratory John Pomeroy said Monday (April 27) that snowpack levels in the front ranges are currently above average.

“When you see a lot of snow on the mountains around Canmore, that is reflecting those high front range snowpacks,” Pomeroy said.

Read the full article here

Transitions, an interdisciplinary collaboration with artist Gennadiy Ivanov and Professors Trevor Davies and John Pomeroy, is now available online in two series catalogues. Click on the images above to view them!

The new University of Saskatchewan (USask) hydrology program passed a major milestone last week by achieving certification from Saskatchewan’s licensing body for geoscientists.

At a remote meeting of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS) on March 24, the association’s Academic Review Committee voted that the USask Bachelor of Science Four-Year and Bachelor of Science Honours programs in hydrology meet Canadian knowledge standards in environmental geoscience.

The certification means that students graduating from the undergraduate hydrology program will be eligible for professional registration as geoscientists-in-training—the first step to becoming a professional geoscientist in Saskatchewan.

Read the full article on the Arts & Science website

Earth’s high mountain areas are so significant in terms of climate change impacts that last fall the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.

Around the world, high mountain areas are places that hold much of Earth’s cryosphere, as the frozen parts of the planet are known, including snow, glaciers, permafrost and lake ice and river ice.

These high mountain areas are also where widespread changes are taking place in response to the planet’s warming temperatures. Declining snowpacks and shifts in the amount and timing of snowmelt runoff are just some of the changes happening in these areas.

The effects aren’t limited to the mountains, but have impacts on physical, biological and human systems in the lowlands downstream.

That includes the Canadian Rockies, foothills and prairies.

Read the Canmore Rocky Mountain Article full here.