The Alberta government is launching a long-term plan to secure the province’s water supply for the next century as population and industrial growth continue to put pressure on resources.
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The province has issued a request for proposals to develop a white paper that will evaluate options to increase water availability, strengthen management practices and guide future infrastructure investments.
Grant Hunter, minister of environment and protected areas, said in a release that the initiative aims to address future demand by looking 100 years ahead to determine what needs to be built, invested in and changed today.
The white paper will explore potential new or expanded storage and conveyance infrastructure, groundwater usage, advanced forecasting and updated policy tools. The government is allocating $400,000 from the 2026–27 Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Regulation water-availability budget toward the report, which is expected to be completed in spring 2027.
Officials noted that ideas identified in the report will require detailed technical assessments before any final decisions are made. The framework will maintain Alberta’s existing “first in-time, first-in-right” priority system for water licences and will respect transboundary obligations and Indigenous treaty rights.
Alongside the long-term study, the province is funding two water-modelling projects to improve short-term and seasonal forecasting:
- South Saskatchewan River Basin: Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd. will build a watershed-scale demand forecasting model covering municipal, agricultural and industrial water use.
- Peace and Athabasca River Basins: Aquanty Inc. will operationalize existing hydrological models to provide near-real-time forecasting in northern Alberta.
Both modelling projects are scheduled for completion by March 2027.
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