Patchy Resources for the Governance of Canada’s Resource Patches: How Hydraulic Fracturing Is Illuminating the Need to Improve Water Governance in Canada

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing emerged in the mid-2000s, with polarizing results across Canada. Provincial governments either embraced the technology for energy development as a key component of their economic strategy, or put moratoriums in place. These two extreme responses have emerged worldwide, and thus, much can be learned from the varying experiences across the Canadian landscape. However, everywhere that exploration and development has taken place, has been met with significant opposition by Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, largely due to the concerns about the associated use of water in the hydraulic fracturing process, and the potential impacts to quality and quantity. Therefore, we argue that hydraulic fracturing has shone a spotlight on, although not caused, existing water governance concerns in Canada and the contestation that underpins many water decision-making processes. This chapter will examine three main challenges. First, we illustrate how water governance approaches across the provinces and territories are patchy and fragmented, which leads to a perceived lack of transparency in the system. Second, we explain how capacity across the many actors involved in governing water or using water is not uniform and we reveal how this affects individual and collective abilities to make substantive changes that would improve the various water governance approaches across the country. On this matter, we add that the allocation of water for industrial use is often perceived as government favouring economic interests over all other values, which can lead to a perceived lack of accountability and conflicts of interest by those responsible for governing water use. Third, we describe how water governance has failed to adequately include Indigenous peoples vis-à-vis free, prior, and informed consent. Many Indigenous peoples are Treaty and Aboriginal rights holders with active land-based livelihood practices in regions affected by extractive activities. Thus, there are unique and significant impacts related to water use for hydraulic fracturing that must be resolved through Nation-to-Nation negotiations with Indigenous peoples. Each of these challenges will be explored in detail in the remainder of this chapter as a means to identify priority areas for change and governance innovation.