Proposed Amendments to the Water Act to Improve Availability

Water is a precious resource and must be managed to meet the province’s growing needs. A resilient and efficient water management system is essential for safeguarding the health of Alberta’s communities, environment and economy.  

Alberta’s growing population, economy, and climate variability are placing pressures on water availability, in terms of both the quantity of water available within river basins and the availability of licences for water use, limiting the potential for growth across sectors such as agriculture and industry as well as municipalities.  

As part of the province’s ongoing work to increase water availability, the government engaged Albertans in fall 2024 to early 2025 to hear ideas on how to strengthen the water management system to enhance availability for years to come.

This second phase of the water availability engagement is focused on addressing administrative barriers and opportunities to enhance water availability as identified from recent engagement feedback. It does not address all the opportunities put forward by Albertans to enhance water availability.

The engagement will be guided by the following objectives: 

• Optimize water use by enabling further gains in water conservation, water-use efficiency and productivity. 
• Free-up and improve access to existing water sources to support economic growth. 
• Enable informed and timely decision making to support water use and system management. 

The Government of Alberta wants to understand your views on the proposed changes to the Water Act to improve water availability in the province, including: 

• Streamlining decision making for water licensing and transfers 
• Enhancing water use information to support effective and transparent management of water by all users, including licensing and licence transfers 
• Enabling lower risk inter-basin transfers 
• Enabling the use of alternative water sources (e.g., rainwater, stormwater, wastewater) 

Please use the Discussion Document on Enhancing Water Availability – Engagement on Proposed Amendments to the Water Act to Improve Availability to complete this survey. It supports the review of proposed Water Act amendments and provides information to support public, water-using sector, Indigenous community and others feedback to inform any change.

The survey will take 45-90 minutes to complete and closes June 30, 2025.