About the Canada-B.C. Agreement on Hydrometric Monitoring
Last updated on August 29, 2024Learn more about the background of the Canada-B.C. Agreement on Hydrometric Monitoring.
Preamble
Streams and lakes provide British Columbia residents with the necessary water required for traditional use, municipal, hydroelectric, industrial, agricultural and recreational purposes. Water also provides important habitat for countless life forms.
The past century has seen the construction of infrastructure, such as dams, reservoirs, bridges and treatment facilities, to better manage these water resources. The design and operation of this infrastructure requires knowledge of the availability, variability and distribution of the water resource. This information is also required for public safety, allocation, water quality assessment and inventory purposes.
The collection of hydrometric data is critical to the understanding of the availability, variability and distribution of the water resource, and these data provide the basis for responsible decision making on the management of this resource. Historic hydrometric data provide the basis for understanding the potential extent and limitation of the resource, and support such activities as policy development, water rights licensing, ecosystem protection, infrastructure design and scientific study. Current and real-time hydrometric data support flood and drought forecasting, and ongoing decision-making regarding the management, use and sharing of the water resource.
British Columbia's Hydrometric Monitoring Program is part of a Canada-wide program that provides accurate, timely and standardized data and information on the current and historic availability of surface water. The parties recognize the value of cooperative water monitoring activities involving federal, provincial, and territorial agencies, for reasons including operational and cost efficiencies.
Background
In 1975, the federal Minister of Environment and the provincial Minister of Lands, Forests and Water Resources signed a Memorandum of Agreement for Water Quantity Surveys thus harmonizing the collection, processing, publication and distribution of hydrometric data in British Columbia. Similar agreements were signed by Canada and all of the provinces and the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada on behalf of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. These agreements have provided the basis for the development of a standardized national archive of data and information on the availability and variability of surface water within Canada.
The evolution of needs since 1975 has created the need for the renewal of all of the 1975 agreements for water quantity surveys. This new Agreement recognizes British Columbia's responsibility for water in the province, and provides the structure and flexibility to ensure that British Columbia has access to an effective and efficient hydrometric monitoring service that supports public health and safety, economic development and the sustainability of our natural environment. New agreements have been signed by Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
This Agreement is one of many similar bilateral agreements on hydrometric monitoring in Canada that, taken together, establish a national framework for hydrometric monitoring. This framework involves participation in the National Administrators' Table, which shall assist the parties in providing direction to the Hydrometric Monitoring Program and in coordinating a consensus-based standardized national program of hydrometric monitoring.