News Release: Government of Alberta amended Water Act despite public feedback
August 14, 2026
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According to internal government records obtained through Access to Information Requests, many changes made by the Government of Alberta to the Water Act late last year were in direct opposition to the public feedback gathered during the province’s Water Availability Engagement from April to June of 2025.
Enacted on Dec. 11, 2025, the Water Amendment Act undertook a number of controversial changes supposedly informed by the aforementioned engagement, including combining two major, distinct river basins into one and authorizing the transfer of flows from one river to another when it is deemed “lower-risk.”
Government records show that neither of these changes were popular (Figure 1); the majority of people who responded to the engagement survey did not support new lower-risk categorizations or alternative approval processes for inter-basin transfers, nor was there majority support for adjusting how major river basins are defined (for example, altering their borders).
Support for changing the major river basins’ boundaries was even lower amongst the organizations (such as industry groups, municipalities, utilities, and NGOs) participating in the engagement; 65 percent of organizations were opposed to this amendment. The only exceptions were responses from the Energy sector, with 86 percent in favour, and those representing Oil and Gas, with 77 percent supporting adjustments. Notably, the feedback provided by organizations was separated out and analyzed independently from the other respondents in the government’s records.
Despite the general lack of support indicated in the engagement results, the Athabasca and Slave/Peace Major River Basins have since been combined by the province. Now recognized as a single basin under law, the change removes legislative guardrails previously in effect when transferring water (“lower risk” or not) between the river systems, across a drainage area that covers 53 percent of Alberta and contains 80 percent of the province’s river flows by volume.
Because each watershed has a different composition — a different biological, chemical, and physical make-up — diverting flows from one basin to another can disrupt these balances and the overall health of the watershed. In the receiving river, inter-basin transfers can introduce pests, parasites, invasive species, and infectious diseases, while reduced flows in the donor river can negatively impact water quality and availability for downstream communities and aquatic habitat. Inter-basin transfers can change whole hydrological regimes, altering the amount, timing, frequency, and variation of precipitation a given watershed receives, as well as how much water ultimately discharges from the rivers.
These are high-risk impacts, and before these latest amendments, this reality was legally recognized; transferring flows between rivers was largely prohibited under the Water Act, and only in very specific scenarios could they be authorized through the passage of a special Act by the legislative assembly, a requirement to ensure accountability and due diligence. In all of Alberta’s history, there have only been seven inter-basin transfers.
Now, through the Water Amendment Act, the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas can give Directors (anyone the Minister designates) authority to issue inter-basin transfers deemed lower-risk.
The engagement records reveal further inconsistencies between the public feedback provided and the amendments ultimately made, with the government introducing changes largely favoured by a few participating industries and sectors over the wishes of the public they are meant to serve.
All records disclosed are publicly available on Alberta Wilderness Association’s website:
For more information, please contact:
Kennedy Halvorson, cs1@abwild.ca