Water legislation

Legislation administered by Environment Canada in its water-related activities include:

• the Canada Water Act , which contains provisions for formal consultation and agreements with the provinces;
• the International River Improvements Act , which provides for licencing of activities that may alter the flow of rivers flowing into the United States; and,
• the Department of the Environment Act , which assigns the national leadership for water management to the Minister of the Environment.

Other important federal legislation includes:

International Boundary Waters Treaty Act ( R.S. 1985, c. I-17 ) ; Bill C-6 (Assented to 18 December 2001)

Canadian Environmental Protection Act (1999)

Fisheries Act

Navigable Waters Protection Act

Northwest Territories Waters Act

Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act

Nunavut Waters and Nunavut Surface Rights Tribunal Act

Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act

Canada Shipping Act

Dominion Water Power Act

Under the provisions of the Canada Water Act, Section 38 requires that a report on operations under the Act be laid before Parliament as soon as possible after the end of each fiscal year. The annual reports on operations under the Canada Water Act for the following fiscal years are available on this site:

• 2001-2002 | HTML | PDF (3.8 MB)
• 2000-2001 | HTML | PDF (3.2 MB)
• 1999-2000 | HTML
• 1998-1999 | HTML

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