In addition, all provinces have in place or are developing legislation or regulations prohibiting the bulk removal of water. This provides solid assurance that bulk removals and exports will not proceed any time in the near future. Building on this action, the federal government also hosted a Governments Roundtable on Water to allow government water experts to meet and talk about key freshwater issues. Canada's water is a precious resource that must be protected and that requires a comprehensive approach to the issue as a whole. The protection of Canada's freshwater resources is not an economic or a trade issue, but is first and foremost an environmental conservation issue.
Water is a finite resource.
Canadians are far more fortunate than most. The watershed or drainage basin is widely recognized in Canada and elsewhere as the fundamental unit for freshwater planning and management. The approach used in the strategy recognizes that bulk removal of water from drainage basins should be managed differently from within-basin uses. Bulk removal, involves the permanent loss of water to the basin. Given the dependency of ecosystems and communities within the basin on this supply of water, bulk removal is considered to represent an unsustainable use of water.