RCE Saskatchewan Empowering for Conservation: Water Drainage and Wetlands Protection on the Canadian Prairies & Updates RCE Saskatchewan Americas Regional RCE Meeting 2018 24-27 October, 2018, Posadas, Argentina

1. RCE Saskatchewan empowering for
conservation: Water drainage and
wetlands protection on the Canadian
prairies & updates
Dr. Roger Petry (presenting),
Sherry Forsyth and Aura Lee
MacPherson (contributors)
7th RCE Conference of the Americas
Posadas, Argentina
16:15, October 25, 2018

2. RCE Saskatchewan Region

3. RCE Saskatchewan Thematic
Issue Areas:
 Building Sustainable Communities
 Climate Change
 Health and Healthy Lifestyles
 Farming and Local Food Production, Consumption,
and Waste Minimization
 K-12 ESD
 Reconnecting to Natural Prairie Ecosystems
 Adapting Cultures for Sustainability
 Sustainable Infrastructure including Water and
Energy
 Youth 9/12/17

4. RCE Saskatchewan Overview:
Storytelling for SD
 Yancoal Potash Mine: Update from
2017
 Proposed Quill Lakes Water
Diversion: RCE Saskatchewan Response
Since Oct. 2017
 International Association of
Universities (IAU): cluster on
Responsible Consumption and
Production (SDG 12)

5. YANCOAL SOUTHEY
POTASH MINE PROPOSAL
 YanCoal: Chinese parent company with past expertise in
coal mining http://www.yancoal.ca/
 Proposal to build a solution potash mine in Havelock, SK
 Extract 2.8 million tonnes of potash/year for 100 years
 Yancoal Environmental Impact Study (EIS),
http://www.environment.gov.sk.ca/2015-
003EISMainDocument, p. E-6)

6. RCE SK Working with Local Communities:
Yancoal Potash Mine Proposal
Local
Residents
GovernmentPotash
Company
Rural Municipality
Sustainable Community
Formal RCE SK Submissions
Video

7. HAVELOCK RESIDENTS’ KEY CONCERNS
1. Impact on drinking water sources
2. Salt spray contamination
3. Increased Traffic
4. Noise
5. Companies lack of experience in potash
6. Companies problematic environmental record and
employee practices
7. Lack of participatory engagement/social license
8. Lack of adequate study and planning on impacts and
development of contingency plans

8. Recent Developments
 June, 2017 - New Yancoal Chairman invited to a meeting
hosted by Havelock Special Projects Committee (HSPC)
announcing a “restart” with its community engagement
 Havelock community excited their story documented in
new UNU publication:
Chapter 1 “Community Knowledge Mobilisation for
Sustainable Development in Saskatchewan”, in Academia
and Communities: Engaging for Change (UNU-IAS, 2018)
http://collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:6601#viewAttachm
ents
 Local community power (mayor and council) and local
elections
 HSPC reports “Nothing going on” between company and
community (Sept. 2018)

9. 10th RCE ESD Recognition Event (May 2, 2018)
Held in Stockholm, SK, includes Tour of
Saskatchewan Potash Interpretive Centre

10. Possible Ripple Effects…
 Increased engagement of media with academic
expertise: Dr. Peter Leavitt, Canada Research Chair in
Environmental Change and Society “State of the
Lakes” presentation at Treaty 4 profiled in local media
https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/waters-role-in-climate-change-resource-
extraction-examined/
 Environmental Regulator Role Diminishing (?):
Government rules new Gensource Potash Corp. not
needing Environmental Impact Study (EIS; Aug. 8,
2018) though smaller mine and innovative methods
http://publications.gov.sk.ca/documents/66/107847-2017-
015%20Gensource%20Vanguard%20One%20Potash%20Project_Approval%20Package.doc
x.pdf
 CBC (and Gensource) notes unusual for no EIS
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/potash-mine-saskatchewan-environmental-
1.4791090

11. Ripple Effects: Calling Lakes Ecomuseum
and RCE Notification of Quill Lakes
Drainage Proposal

12. Real Ecological Limits:
Quill Lakes and Potential Overflow
Quill Lakes (635 sq. km): a saline lake; + 7 m water level over 13
years (QLWA); currently 60 cm below overflow at 521.47m (down 40
cm from last year; WSA)

13. Causes Attributed to Growth in Lakes
• Extreme rainfall events (starting in
2005)
• Higher humidity levels reducing
evaporation
• Upstream drainage and loss of
wetlands
• No natural outlet (a closed basin)

14. Proposed Solution: Common Ground Drainage
Diversion Project
• Proposal put forward by Quill Lakes
Watershed Association (QLWA), a
Conservation and Development (C&D)
authority
• Proposal to construct a 25 km drainage
diversion channel redirecting surface water
from Kutawagan Lake and Pel Lake towards
Last Mountain Lake
• Estimated diversion of 7,000,000 m3 of
surface water/year
• Goal to lower Quill Lakes by lowering
Kutawagan and Pel Lakes by 0.6 metres
• See Ministry of Environment EASB File # 2017-014
(Sept. 8, 2017)

15. Ministry of Environment Indicates there will be No
Environmental Assessment (Sept. 8, 2017)
Ministry determined “the project does not meet the
criteria of section 2(d) of The Environmental
Assessment Act (the Act) and, therefore, is not a
“development” that is required to undergo an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)”
Implications of lack of EIA:
• Diversion proposal not needing to be made public
• No space for public input (including scholarly input)
nor consultation with First Nations/Indigenous Peoples
• No requirement to justify project as most
appropriate solution (opportunity costs)

16. Legal Limits: RCE notes Errors in Ministry’s
Determination under the Saskatchewan
Environmental Assessment Act
• failed to acknowledge all surface water as a
provincial resource under the provincial Water
Security Agency Act (Sec. 38(1)) and potential for
degradation of large volumes of freshwater
• failed to acknowledge documented widespread
public concern downstream (including specific letter
from Calling Lakes Ecomuseum from June 15, 2017, to
Minister stating Need for Inclusive and Accountable
Institution Building)
• failed to acknowledge potentially significant
adverse impacts on the environment

17. Sustainability Questions Related to Project
• What environmental and livelihood impacts
would there be moving water between watersheds
(Quill Lakes Basin and Qu’Appelle River
Watershed) with diminished water quality?
 What impacts would there be on the Last
Mountain Lake Migratory Bird Sanctuary (oldest
in N. America) and National Wildlife Area at the
North end of Last Mountain Lake?
 How would the movement of water affect
resilience to predicted droughts under climate
change (e.g. summer of 2017)?
 What impact might there be on Treaty Rights of
First Nations communities downstream?

18. Key RCE Concern: Diversion Project
Insufficient to Meet Quill Lakes Goal
• Common Ground Drainage Diversion Project
diversion of 7,000,000 m3 of surface water
insufficient to goal of substantively lowering
Quill Lakes
• Only reduces Quill Lakes by a mere
0.52cm/year (using data from KGS 2016
study)

19. Value of Closing Illegal Drainage in
Qu’Appelle Basin
• 38% of the Quill Lakes' current average inflow
is due to illegal drainage (KGS. 2016. p. 77,
Table 11)
• Clear substantive reduction in Quill Lakes if close
illegal drainage
• Acknowledged by Saskatchewan Ministry of
Environment’s media release of July 14, 2016
committing itself to closing unapproved
drainage works into the Quill Lakes Area
• Little to no action taken until recently

20. Quill Lakes a Symptom of Wider Need
to Protect and Restore Wetlands
• Carbon sequestration
• Wildlife habitat
• Groundwater replenishment
• Water purification
• Flood prevention
• Innovations in production
collaborating with nature
• Water storage (& climate
change)

21. Need For Better Water Management with
Climate Change: Projected Changes in
Precipitation for months of April and August
Prairie Climate Centre (Oct 19, 2017) with map data from
the University of Victoria Pacific Climates Consortium

22. Opportunity Cost: Move from Water Drainage to
Water Storage, Management, and Use
=

23. Timeline of RCE Saskatchewan
Strategic Interventions and Quill Lakes
• RCE Letter for Water Management Roundtable (Oct.
10, 2017)
• Pasqua First Nations announces intention for Judicial
Review of lack of Provincial Environmental assessment
(Nov. 2, 2017); applies for review in December
• Pipe Ceremony with Elders for the Water (Nov. 6 at
Treaty 4 Governance Centre in Fort Qu’Appelle)
• RCE Requests Canadian Government Environmental
Assessment (Nov. 19, 2017) and Federal Request for
Input (Nov. 24, 2017)
• RCE Cites Relevant SDGs (#2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 14, 15,
16, 17)
• Saskatchewan Alliance for Water Sustainability
(SAWS) Incorporates (Nov. 24, 2017)
• Developed website: www.lmlsg.ca/saws/
• Petition for Provincial EIA and document release
(Nov. 25, 2017)

24. 2018 Timeline
• Common Ground Channel Diversion Project withdrawn
(January, 2018) after emails showing inappropriately cozy
relationship between QLWA and Government (based on Freedom of
Information Act request by Saskatchewan Alliance for Water
Sustainability and analysis by CBC and Dr. Jason MacLean at U. of
Saskatchewan)
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/emails-show-very-
cozy-relationship-between-sask-gov-t-and-quill-lakes-1.4496750
• Pasqua First Nations reaches out of court settlement with Gov’t
of SK requiring “enhanced engagement process” re. drainage plans
(May 18, 2018)
• Wetland Roundtable organized in Saskatoon by concerned
organizations and volunteers (June 6-7, 2018)
• Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan releases critique of WSA:
2018 Report-Volume 1: “Ch. 12: Water Security Agency—
Regulating Drainage” (June 7, 2018)

25. Continued Mobilization by Saskatchewan
Alliance for Water Sustainability (SAWS)
• Government Meeting: SK Water Security Agency (WSA) meets
with SAWS & RCE from direction of Environment Minister Dustin
Duncan (June 1, 2018) but no follow-up meeting
• Media Releases: SAWs develops 7 Communication Releases
for Public (http://www.lmlsg.ca/saws/)
• Public Education Sessions: held in 2 communities on Last
Mountain Lake with SAWS/Calling Lakes Ecomuseum/RCE
• Letter Writing Campaign: to Ministry of Env. and WSA
• Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment replies to SAWS
Oct. 3, 2018; cites initiatives of SK Water Security Agency
(WSA):
• WSA has established a field office in Quill Lakes area
(Wadena, SK)
• WSA promoting consolidation of drainage on producer’s own
property (vs. others & downstream)

26. Global Connections: RCEs and
International Bodies
• RCE Saskatchewan presents on Quill Lakes Diversion Project at 1st
Global RCE Thematic Conference in Okayama, Japan (December
5-7, 2017)
• Focus on issues of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SDG
#12)

27. • IAU’s Higher Education and Research for Sustainable
Development (HESD) Initiative
• See HESD Portal: http://www.iau-hesd.net/
• Launches IAU HESD Cluster in 2018
• Brings together clusters of universities on each SDG
• RCE SK Higher Education Partners (U. of Saskatchewan, U. of
Regina & Luther College) asked to lead Responsible
Consumption and Production (SDG 12) cluster
International Association of
Universities (IAU) and RCEs

28. Role of RCEs, IAU HESD Cluster, &
Americas Universities in Distress
How can RCEs:
• Assist in identification of Higher
Education institutions to participate in
each cluster?
• Encourage “whole institutional”
approaches (faculty, student, staff, &
alumni participation & interdisciplinarity)
to the SDGs?
• Apply RCE’s ESD research to
transform university practice as “living
laboratories” then return back to
communities?