Top officials in both Canada and the United States are pushing for the need to finalize the updated Columbia River Treaty to manage water flowing between the two countries before the administration change in America.
Foreign Affairs Minister M茅lanie Joly told reporters in Lima, Peru, on Friday, that much can be accomplished to get the treaty through Congress before president-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Joly is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru and said she met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday to discuss the importance of a clear agreement between the two countries on water management on the West Coast.
She said she thinks there can be bipartisan support for the treaty after an agreement in principle was signed with the Biden administration in June, calling it a B次元官网网址渒ey objective.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淲e think itB次元官网网址檚 a win-win situation for both sides of the border. British Columbia is on board, First Nations are on board, and we know we have the support of key senators, also on the American side,B次元官网网址� she said.
BlinkenB次元官网网址檚 office said in a statement that the meeting with Joly B次元官网网址渞eiterated the need for the United States and Canada to finalize a modernized Columbia River Treaty.B次元官网网址�
Matthew Lebo, a specialist in U.S. politics at Western University in London, Ont., said B次元官网网址済enerally, if the Democrats want something passed and they can get 50 votes now, they should move fast.B次元官网网址�
While itB次元官网网址檚 not immediately clear where Trump stands on the treaty, once he is in the White House he has the ability to kill it, even if thereB次元官网网址檚 bipartisan support, by directing the new Republican majority leader not to bring it to the Senate floor, Lebo said.
At a news conference in September, Trump claimed that Canada had B次元官网网址渆ssentially, a very large faucetB次元官网网址� that was sending water into the Pacific Ocean, but that it could be turned around to send water B次元官网网址渞ight into Los AngelesB次元官网网址� to help with natural disasters.
At the time, experts told The Canadian Press that while systems that divert water back and forth between the United States and Canada exist, there is no infrastructure, let alone a water system with B次元官网网址渁 large faucet,B次元官网网址� that would directly transport water from Canada to California.
The Columbia River runs through British Columbia and down into the states of Washington and Oregon.
In June, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden announced the agreement in principle to modernize the 63-year-old treaty, which Trudeau said would allow continued flood-risk management and co-operation on hydro power on the river.
At the same time, Biden said the deal would B次元官网网址渞ebalance energy co-ordinationB次元官网网址� between the two countries, allowing the United States to keep more hydro while giving Canada opportunities to both import power and export it to the U.S. market.
The original treaty was signed in 1961 after a flood in 1948 devastated communities along the river, killing several dozen people.
First Nations along the Columbia River Basin in B.C. have long been calling for changes to the treaty to support the restoration of salmon runs that have been blocked by dams in the U.S.
