Water Stewardship and Rescaling Management of Transboundary Rivers in the Alberta-Montana Borderlands

ABSTRACT

Surface water access in northern Montana and southern Alberta is an historic political and economic concern that continues to spark contentious debate. It has however also led to several innovative attempts to reconcile differences through regional cooperation in management of transboundary rivers. One attempt—the formation of a Joint Initiative Team (JIT) in 2008 (to 2011) to investigate opportunities for each jurisdiction to improve shared water access of the St. Mary and Milk River systems—failed in its efforts to rescale the Alberta-Montana borderlands water management model. This paper explores this development, and adds to the literature by presenting a study evaluating the JIT’s attempt, and the factors leading to its demise. These lessons will be of interest to scholars interested in similar issues in other border areas.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Kate Dekruyf and Shanea Nilsson for their research assistance; those in attendance at the October 2015 ACSUS panel for their questions and insights; Drs Geoffrey Hale and Greg Anderson for their comments; and the participants of an SSHRC-sponsored workshop held in Calgary, March 2016 for their commentary.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The JIT meeting minutes can be found at http://aep.alberta.ca/water/programs-and-services/river-management-frameworks/montana-alberta-st-mary-and-milk-rivers-water-management-initiative/previous-meetings-of-the-montana-alberta-water-management-initiative.aspx (last accessed 30 May 2017).

2 For those seeking additional information or greater clarity on the water apportionment prior to the JIT’s formation please see for example Klein, LeRoy, and Cook (2012) and Halliday and Faveri (2007).

3 The following conclusion is derived from conducting a textual analysis of more than two-dozen Globe articles that appeared between 1880 and 1900.

4 Reserves are defined as tracts of lands set aside by the federal government of Canada for the use and benefit of First Nations. Reservations are similarly parcels of lands, which American Indian tribes reserved for themselves after surrendering large tracts of land to the U.S. government. First Nations (Canada) and American Indians (US) are analogous legal terms describing ‘Indians’ living on reserves (Canada) and reservations (US), respectively.

5 The JIT meeting minutes can be found at http://aep.alberta.ca/water/programs-and-services/river-management-frameworks/montana-alberta-st-mary-and-milk-rivers-water-management-initiative/previous-meetings-of-the-montana-alberta-water-management-initiative.aspx (last accessed 30 May 2017).

6 The New Democratic Party (NDP) was founded in 1961 out of the merger of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), and bills itself as Canada’s social democratic party.

Additional information

Funding

The author gratefully acknowledges the provision of research funding for the Borders in Globalization project by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and a University of Lethbridge Chinook Summer Research Award [Grant Number 895-2012-1022].