The Program on Water Issues at the University of Toronto
The Gordon Foundation has funded the Program On Water Issues (POWI) at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto since its creation in 2001. POWI provides opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship and collaborative research, dialogue, and education on Canada's critical, emerging water resource issues.
Under director Adèle Hurley, POWI has undertaken work in the fields of water use and diversion, water security, groundwater and governance. POWI's Political Diversions and Decision Time reports and associated workshops were instrumental in raising the profile of the Great Lakes Annex 2001 process and engaging the public in discussion and debate on the issue of Great Lakes withdrawals and diversions. (See Withdrawals and Diversions from the Great Lakes [link to highlight])
More recent research has focused on other pressing binational water issues. POWI filed a comment in September 2005 with the US Bureau of Land Reclamation in North Dakota in response to options being considered to supply water to the US portion of the Red River Valley. POWI's submission, A Binational Perspective on the Draft Report on the Red River Valley Water Needs and Options, provided evidence as to why it was inappropriate for the Bureau of Land Reclamation to include construction of a pipeline to Lake of the Woods as an option for resolving water quantity issues in the Red River Valley.
In response to a request from the Governor of Montana, the International Joint Commission established a Task Force in 2004 to examine the historic apportionment of the waters of the St. Mary and Milk Rivers, which are shared by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana. In June 2006, POWI filed comments to the Task Force (Comments on the International St. Mary-Milk Rivers Administrative Measures Task Force Report), arguing that all parties should engage in broader cooperative arrangements, including putting increased emphasis on water conservation and the protection of wetlands, which are critically important for maintaining flows, groundwater resources and water quality.
More information on POWI and its publications can be found at www.powi.ca/.