Wetland Policy

In 2005, the Alberta Water Council established the Wetland Policy Project Team to develop recommendations for a new wetland policy and corresponding implementation plan for the Government of Alberta. The development of  a wetland policy and implementation plan was identified as a key action in the Water for Life strategy to help acheive the goal of healthy aquatic ecosystems. A complete description of the team’s work is outlined in their Terms of Reference.

2005 - 2008

The Wetland Policy Project Team’s work was supported by extensive consultation and ongoing discussion with the government, non-governement organizations and industry. A Wetland Workbook was used to solicit feedback from interested stakeholders, and resulted in a What we Heard report that informed the team’s work. In June 2008, the team submitted two documents to the AWC Board of Directors for approval: Recommendations for a New Alberta Wetland Policy and Recommendations for a New Alberta Wetland Policy Implementation Plan. The board agreed to defer a final decision on the documents until September 2008 to allow members time to ratify the documents within their sector.

At the end of the allotted time period, two sectors submitted non-consensus letters and indicated that while they supported most of the policy and plan, they could not fully support all of the idea and actions recommended by the project team.

Wetland Document Package

When issues of non-consensus arise, the AWC asks the parties to identify the particular items they cannot support and propose alternative solutions that would make them acceptable. That information is then distributed to AWC members for review and, if desired, response. Response letters provide members an opportunity to state their thoughts on the alternatives being presented and ensure their views are also heard. In this case, a single response letter was received by the board. At that point, all of the information was compiled into a package and transmitted to the Minister of Environment with a request to review the information and decide how to best proceed.