Reasons for Government Inaction and Its Negative Consequences: Two Case Studies of Failed Water Management Initiatives in Alberta, Canada

Abstract

In the province of Alberta, Canada, exploring new strategies to improve water management has become necessary. One such strategy involved improvements to the water transfer system and a second involved the creation of a water sharing strategy within a regional partnership. Despite the prospect of improving water management, proposed advancements to the water transfer system were not implemented, and the regional partnership floundered when it bifurcated along urban and rural lines. This study focused on these two failed attempts to improve water management as case studies, highlighting a possible role the provincial government could have played in enhancing water management. The first case study found that the politically-imbued nature of water management presented the greatest impediment to government implementing changes to the water transfer system. The second case study uncovered a host of measures the government could have undertaken to provide leadership and support but failed to do so. In both instances, important opportunities to improve water management failed, in part due to the politicization of water on the one hand, and government's unwillingness to provide leadership and support on the other.