Meeting Alberta’s rising demand for water

Overview

The Water Amendment Act (formerly Bill 7), will update the Water Act to make more water available for farmers, ranchers, businesses and growing communities while keeping strong environmental protections in place.

The Water Act hasn’t been meaningfully updated since 1999. Alberta’s population has nearly doubled since then, and our water management system needs to keep up. 

Proposed changes were informed by feedback from Albertans during government’s water availability engagement, held in 2 phases from October 2024 to June 2025.

Key changes

The Water Amendment Act will:

• streamline decision making for water licensing, such as licensing changes and setting service standards
• enhance information on water use, including consistent water use reporting and disclosure of prices paid (if any) for water licence transfers and other water access
• enable lower risk inter-basin transfers to be approved by Ministerial Order and simplify major river basin boundaries
• support greater use of alternative water sources, such as rooftop rainwater collection and reuse of treated wastewater

Next steps

The Water Amendment Act will come into force on proclamation. 

Public and stakeholder engagement will follow to help us develop specific policies to align with the legislation, including those regarding water use reporting, management of alternative water sources and pricing disclosure for licensed water transfers and other water access. 

News

• Meeting Alberta's rising demand for water (October 30, 2025)