Une analyse de rentabilité pour l’investissement dans la surveillance communautaire de l’eau au Canada

The report advocates for a shift from short-term project-based funding to long-term core funding for community-based water monitoring (CBWM) in Canada. It highlights that 100 of 167 Canadian watersheds lack sufficient data for quality scoring, creating a gap that CBWM can fill more cost-effectively than professional government monitoring. Through three case studies—the Lake Winnipeg Foundation, the Kaska Guardians, and the Clean Annapolis River Project—the document demonstrates that CBWM can achieve a return on investment exceeding 3:1 and up to 11.6:1 in some instances. The report recommends the creation of a five-year pilot project and the use of a proposed Canadian Water Agency to coordinate these efforts to improve environmental governance and climate adaptation.

• Canada faces a significant deficit in water quality data, with 100 out of 167 sub-watersheds lacking sufficient data to be assigned a quality score.
• Community-based water monitoring (CBWM) is identified as a cost-effective alternative to conventional monitoring, with a general cost-effectiveness ratio greater than 3:1.
• The Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP) achieved a return on investment of 11.6:1 between 1997 and 2002 when comparing the community model's cost (6.1 million CAD) to the estimated cost of conventional execution by Environment Canada (71.049 million CAD over five years).
• Current funding for CBWM in Canada is predominantly short-term and project-based, which the report describes as a "non-profit starvation cycle" that prevents the retention of permanent staff and the maintenance of long-term monitoring.
• Indigenous-led monitoring, such as the Kaska Guardians program, integrates traditional knowledge with Western science to protect ancestral territories and supports the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).
• The report recommends that the Canadian government implement a five-year pilot project providing long-term core funding to established CBWM organizations to ensure data continuity and professional capacity in remote regions.
• The proposed Canadian Water Agency is suggested as the ideal body to coordinate and oversee a horizontal initiative to connect local, provincial, and federal water monitoring organizations.

APA

Gunn, G. (2021). Une analyse de rentabilité pour l’investissement dans la surveillance communautaire de l’eau au Canada. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-fr.pdf

Chicago

Gunn, Geoffrey. Une analyse de rentabilité pour l’investissement dans la surveillance communautaire de l’eau au Canada. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2021. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gunn |first1=Geoffrey |title=Une analyse de rentabilité pour l’investissement dans la surveillance communautaire de l’eau au Canada |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=November 2021 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-fr.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gunn2021une, author = {Gunn, Geoffrey}, title = {{Une analyse de rentabilité pour l’investissement dans la surveillance communautaire de l’eau au Canada}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }