Nation-wide decentralized governance arrangements and capacities for integrated watershed management: issues and insights from Canada.(Country overview)(Report)

Abstract

This paper explores existing decentralized governance arrangements and capacities for integrated watershed management in Canada across its thirteen provinces and territories, with particular emphasis on organizations with governing Boards that are principally, but not exclusively, comprised of persons from the local/regional community. 'Capacity' is broadly considered across human, social, institutional and economic dimensions. The research identifies and discusses 115 organizations as forming the potential foundations or 'building blocks' for nation-wide governance arrangements on the basis of the following criteria: (a) having a Board of management that includes community representation; (b) having responsibilities for integrated watershed management; (c) being independent or quasi-independent from government and having dedicated paid staff; (d) operating at sub-national scale; and (e) representing the dominant and larger-scale organizational network for watershed management in the respective province or territory. These criteria are influenced by the need to transfer ideas and insights about capacity development from Canada's decentralized governance arrangements to the Australian setting as part of a broader research agenda. The paper explores the notion that there are enough similarities within and between individual provincial and territorial arrangements to constitute a recognizable set of nation-wide governance arrangements and capacities that could be more purposefully 'evolved'. Such 'evolution' could occur through formal acknowledgment, expansion, utilization, development and support, and could be particularly beneficial for delivering on emerging national agendas, such as water and climate change. A broad suite of capacity issues and insights are presented in the form of an exploratory SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, many of which are the focus of discussion in other literatures and have been with us for a long time. The paper provides a national synopsis and snapshot, and highlights that much still remains to be done in the domain of integrated watershed management. It aims to stimulate thinking about the merits of and prospects for developing nation-wide decentralized governance arrangements and capacities for integrated watershed management, and to inform dialogue and agenda-setting in this regard among system actors (i.e., subnational organizations, overarching organizations, governments, municipalities, First Nations, etc.) as a first-step.

L'auteure traite des arrangements de gouvernance decentralisee et des moyens d'action pour la gestion integree des bassins hydrographiques existants dans les treize provinces ou territoires, en examinant plus particulierement les organismes dotes de conseils d'administration qui sont principalement, mais pas uniquement, constitues de personnes de la communaute locale ou regionale. On considere le terme [much less than] capacite [much greater than] dans son sens large, c.-a-d. englobant les dimensions humaines, sociales, institutionnelles et economiques. La recherche reconnait et decrit 155 organisations formant les assises potentielles d'arrangements de gouvernance a l'echelle nationale selon criteres suivants: a) etre dote d'un conseil d'administration qui comprend des representants de la communaute; b) assumer des responsabilites de gestion integree des bassins hydrographiques; c) maintenir un role independant ou quasi independant vis-a-vis du gouvernement et etre dote d'un personnel salarie distinct; d) fonctionner a l' echelle sous-nationale; e) representer le reseau organisationnel dominant ou de grande envergure traitant de la gestion des bassins hydrographiques dans la province ou le territoire respectif. Ces criteres sont influences par la necessite de transferer et d'adapter les idees et les visions sur le developpement des capacites, des arrangements de gouvernance decentralisee du Canada a la situation de l'Australie, dans le cadre d'un mandat de recherche elargi. L'auteure aborde la notion voulant qu'il existe suffisamment de similitudes au sein de chaque arrangement provincial ou territorial, ou entre eux, pour permettre d'y voir un ensemble identifiable d'arrangements et de capacites de gouvernance a l'echelle nationale qui pourraient etre elabores dans ce but precis. Une telle elaboration pourrait avoir lieu par le biais de la reconnaissance, de l' accroissement, de l'utilisation, du developpement et du soutien; de plus, elle pourrait repondre a beaucoup d'attentes touchant certains enjeux nationaux emergents, tels que I'eau et les changements climatiques. Une vaste liste d'enjeux et de visions touchant les capacites est presentee sous forme d'une analyse FFOM (forces, faiblesses, occasions et menaces) exploratoire, dont plusieurs elements font I'objet de debats dans d'autres publications et sont depuis longtemps sujets d'actualite. L'auteure nous propose aussi un synopsis et un portrait national de la situation, de plus elle met en evidence qu'il reste beaucoup a faire dans le domaine de la gestion integree des bassins hydrographiques. Cet article vise a stimuler la reflexion concernant les merites des arrangements et des capacites de la gouvernance decentralisee a l'echelle nationale pour la gestion integree des bassins hydrographiques et de ses perspectives d'epanouissement, et aussi a alimenter, comme premier pas, les echanges et l' establishment des enjeux a cet egard aupres des intervenants du secteur, que ce soient les organismes nationaux a differents echelons, les gouvernements, les municipalites, les Premieres nations ou d'autres.

Keywords

Capacity building, community participation, decentralized governance, integrated watershed management

Introduction

Canada is a constitutional monarchy and federal parliamentary democracy based on English common law (except in the case of Quebec). It has thirteen provinces and territories, each with unique historical, cultural, social, political, ecological and economic contexts. The constitution vests powers for the management of land and water primarily at provincial level (Muldoon and McClenaghan 2007). However, Blomquist et al. (2007: 135) emphasize that natural resources (particularly water) are not simply a provincial matter in Canada, as "the federal government has power over, or plays a significant role in, interprovincial and international trade, navigation and shipping, conservation and protection of oceans and fisheries, and water on federal lands, in national parks, and in First Nations communities."