Shared Air, Shared Water: Environmental Resistance Across Canadian Sites Under Canada-U.S. Strain

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This post is part of the Tracking the Effects: Environmental History and the Current United States Federal Administration series edited by Jessica DeWitt, Shannon Stunden Bower, and Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles. Submissions for this series are being accepted on an ongoing basis. Learn more here and here.

Canada-U.S. environmental relations take shape through connected ecological systems and the public records that track them. More than 40% of the Canada-U.S. border is water, and more than 300 rivers and lakes lie along, or flow across, the boundary. Those connections create a shared evidentiary problem. Nutrients, contaminants, animals, and pollutants move across jurisdictions regardless of the international border and geopolitical complications. The extent to which these metrics enter public consciousness largely depends on whether government institutions – Canadian or American – collect, preserve, and make available data that tracks such metrics over time. The current U.S. federal push for energy expansion and regulatory rollback increases the importance of tracking efforts because the resulting records keep ecological change visible even amid shifts in U.S. environmental policy.

In this context, international waters or watersheds amount to something like environmental archives. The Great Lakes establish the clearest binational archive; Lake Winnipeg extends that archive inland through a continental watershed; the Fraser carries it into the Salish Sea; the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy place it in Atlantic waters; the Beaufort ties ecological observation to sovereignty and threshold-setting; and the shared airshed carries the same relationship into the atmosphere.1

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement anchors the clearest treaty-based record of environmental change in North America. Canada and the United States first signed the agreement in 1972 and renewed it in 2012. The agreement identifies shared priorities and coordinates actions to restore and protect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of Great Lakes waters. Progress reports, annex work, public meetings, and the International Joint Commission‘s triennial assessment keep nutrient loading, invasive species, habitat degradation, and contamination within a standing cross-border record. Public input from residents, First Nations, Métis, and Tribal communities enters that record through the Commission’s assessment process. In the Great Lakes, binational governance gives ecological change a durable public archive.2

Satellite image of the Great Lakes basin.
MODIS Satellite Image of the Great Lakes. U.S. Geological Survey, Great Lakes Science Center; courtesy NOAA-GLERL. Public Domain (USGS Sources/Usage). https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/modis-satellite-image-great-lakes

Lake Winnipeg extends that evidentiary structure inland through a watershed that crosses eight Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions. The lake turns a vast basin into a public record through phosphorus indicators, hotspot maps, community sampling, and public project summaries. Federal indicators measure phosphorus conditions against Manitoba’s long-term target of 0.05 mg/L. Canada Water Agency materials describe community-based monitoring that identifies phosphorus hotspots and tracks trends across the watershed. Public summaries of federally funded projects identify wetland restoration, streambank stabilization, erosion control, and local partnerships intended to reduce nutrient loads. Together, these indicators, hotspot maps, sampling efforts, and project summaries turn diffuse ecological pressure into a basin-wide archive that residents, watershed organizations, and governments can use in basin management and nutrient control debates.3

From the continental interior, the same archival logic moves west into a river system whose local conditions carry consequences into shared marine waters. The Fraser links monitoring in British Columbia to transboundary ecological effects in the Salish Sea. Nearly 640 square kilometres of the Lower Fraser basin lie across the international border in Washington State, and the river contributes approximately half of the freshwater inflows to the Canada-U.S. Salish Sea ecosystem. The Canada-B.C. Water Quality Monitoring Network states its purpose directly: it provides water-quality information, tracks change over time, and identifies threats to aquatic life. Federal buoy readings at Delta post turbidity, conductivity, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and weather conditions in real time, while public summaries from the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund track restoration and enhancement projects through March 2026. Sediment, water quality, salmon habitat, and restoration activity remain legible as conditions move from a Canadian river system into shared marine waters.4

The Atlantic coast gives this cross-border archive a marine form. In the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy, marine change enters public view through indicator reports, contaminant monitoring, and survey data collected across Canadian and U.S. waters. The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment describes itself as a Canadian-American partnership. Its EcoSystem Indicator Partnership integrates regional data into a shared reporting system for marine ecosystem monitoring, and Gulfwatch has tracked chemical contaminants in blue mussels across coastal waters since 1991. NOAA’s EcoMon survey extends that evidentiary field across the Gulf of Maine, the Bay of Fundy, and the Western Scotian Shelf in Canadian waters. This Atlantic archive keeps marine conditions visible across jurisdictions and over time.5

In northern areas, concerns around ecology, development, and sovereignty converge. In the Mackenzie-Beaufort region, boundary negotiations, threshold documents, and marine management plans tie ecological observation to northern governance. Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy states that Canada launched negotiations with the United States in September 2024 to resolve the long-standing Beaufort Sea maritime boundary dispute. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada states that the Beaufort Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment examined future offshore oil and gas development, set desired environmental outcomes and thresholds, and addressed policy and regulatory issues in partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Inuvialuit Game Council. Fisheries and Oceans Canada adds an integrated marine-governance framework through the Beaufort Sea Integrated Management Area, whose goals include governance, culture, and ecosystem integrity. Together, these records keep northern ecological change in public view within a shared administrative field.6

False-colour satellite image of the Beaufort Sea shoreline at the Alaska-Canada border, with Beaufort Sea labelling and the Alaska-Yukon border marked.
Landsat 9 False Colour Image of the Beaufort Sea Shoreline. U.S. Geological Survey, Landsat Missions. Public Domain (USGS Sources/Usage). https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/landsat-9-false-color-image-beaufort-sea-shoreline.

While the above examples focus on waters and watersheds, atmospheric flows underpin the establishment of similar environmental archives. The Canada-U.S. Air Quality Agreement, signed in 1991 and expanded in 2000 through the Ozone Annex, provides a treaty-level structure for monitoring, scientific cooperation, information exchange, and biennial progress reporting. Environment and Climate Change Canada states that the agreement remains a proven framework for addressing transboundary air pollution that affects tens of millions of people and that covered pollutants continue to affect human health and the environment in both countries. The 2023 joint review notes that transboundary transport continues to affect Canadian air quality, with stronger effects in southern Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. Within that longer record, FireWork smoke forecasts show how wildfire smoke is expected to move across North America over the next 72 hours. Agreement reviews, progress reports, health-impact studies, and smoke forecasts keep shared air visible in public form.7

Taken together, these sites show that joint efforts to track conditions in transboundary ecosystems create a certain resiliency in the ongoing tracking of important environmental metrics. Insofar as they mandate the tracking of indicators and thresholds and the making of assessments and forecasts, binational agreements help keep ecological change visible within connected watersheds, marine basins, Arctic waters, and the shared airshed. The resulting environmental archives preserve dated evidence that Indigenous governments, public agencies, watershed organizations, and communities can interpret, circulate, and use in environmental decision-making, stewardship work, public criticism, and cross-border coordination. Under current strain in Canada-U.S. relations, as well as hostility to environmental protection on the part of key US federal leaders, environmental archives carry added importance. Because ecological systems remain connected even while policy priorities diverge, established binational efforts to track key environmental indicators can help sustain environmental protest and resistance by ensuring ecological change remains publicly legible across jurisdictions and over time.

Notes

1. Canada Water Agency, “Section 1: Introduction,” Government of Canada, September 11, 2025, https://www.canada.ca/en/canada-water-agency/corporate/transparency/briefing-materials/transition-binder-minister-2025/section-1.html; The White House, “Unleashing American Energy,” January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Final Rule: Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards Under the Clean Air Act,” February 18, 2026, https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/final-rule-rescission-greenhouse-gas-endangerment.

2. Canada Water Agency, “Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement,” updated July 15, 2025, https://www.canada.ca/en/canada-water-agency/freshwater-ecosystem-initiatives/great-lakes/great-lakes-protection/canada-united-states-water-quality-agreement.html; International Joint Commission, “IJC’s Triennial Assessment of Progress 101,” accessed April 21, 2026, https://glperspectives.ijc.org/en/ijc-s-triennial-assessment-progress-101.

3. Canada Water Agency, “Lake Winnipeg Basin Program: overview,” updated January 30, 2025, https://www.canada.ca/en/canada-water-agency/freshwater-ecosystem-initiatives/lake-winnipeg/overview.html; Government of Canada, “Reductions in Phosphorus Loads to Lake Winnipeg,” accessed April 21, 2026, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/phosphorus-lake-winnipeg.html; Canada Water Agency, “Section 2: What We Do and Who We Work With,” September 11, 2025, https://www.canada.ca/en/canada-water-agency/corporate/transparency/briefing-materials/transition-binder-president-2025/section-2.html; Canada Water Agency, “Projects funded by the Lake Winnipeg Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative,” updated November 12, 2025, https://www.canada.ca/en/canada-water-agency/funding/funded-projects/lake-winnipeg.html.

4. Canada Water Agency, “Fraser River overview,” updated May 29, 2025, https://www.canada.ca/en/canada-water-agency/freshwater-ecosystem-initiatives/fraser-river/overview.html; Government of British Columbia, “More Information About the Canada-B.C. Water Quality Monitoring Program,” updated February 27, 2026, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/air-land-water/water/water-quality/water-quality-monitoring/canada-bc-water-quality-monitoring-program/more-information; Environment and Climate Change Canada, “Fraser River Water Quality Buoy,” accessed April 21, 2026, https://aquatic.pyr.ec.gc.ca/realtimebuoys/default.aspx; Fisheries and Oceans Canada, “British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund,” updated October 21, 2025, https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fisheries-peches/initiatives/fish-fund-bc-fonds-peche-cb/index-eng.html.

5. Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, “About the Council,” accessed April 21, 2026, https://www.gulfofmaine.org/public/gulf-of-maine-council-on-the-marine-environment/about-the-council/; Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, “EcoSystem Indicator Partnership,” accessed April 21, 2026, https://www.gulfofmaine.org/public/ecosystem-indicator-partnership/; Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, “Gulfwatch Contaminants Monitoring Program,” accessed April 21, 2026, https://www.gulfofmaine.org/council/publications/gulfwatchfactsheet.pdf; NOAA Fisheries, “Surveys in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic,” updated February 27, 2026, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/science-data/surveys-northeast-and-mid-atlantic.

6. Global Affairs Canada, “Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy,” February 26, 2026, https://international.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/corporate/reports/arctic-policy-2024; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, “Arctic Regional Environmental Studies,” updated January 16, 2025, https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1492023135343/1538588674968; Fisheries and Oceans Canada, “Beaufort Sea Integrated Management Area,” updated October 28, 2017, https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/management-gestion/beaufort-eng.html.

7. Environment and Climate Change Canada, “Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement: overview,” updated November 26, 2024, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-pollution/issues/transboundary/canada-united-states-air-quality-agreement-overview.html; Environment and Climate Change Canada, “Review and Assessment of the Canada-U.S. Air Quality Agreement 2023,” updated November 26, 2024, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-pollution/issues/transboundary/canada-united-states-air-quality-agreement-overview/review-assessment-2023.html; Public Health Agency of Canada, “Wildfires in Canada: Toolkit for Public Health Authorities,” updated June 17, 2024, https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/wildfires-canada-toolkit-public-health-authorities.html.

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John W. Bessai

John W. Bessai, PhD, is an independent Canadian scholar, filmmaker, and educator whose work examines how public institutions use film, digital storytelling, and interactive media as forms of art as a public service. His research introduces the concept of the Canadian aporetic condition, a framework for understanding the tensions that shape Canadian public life around Indigenous–settler relations, environmental governance, and pluralist democracy. Building on his dissertation at Trent University, he analyzes the National Film Board of Canada’s documentary and digital projects as laboratories for public storytelling, institutional critique, and democratic engagement. He has taught Canadian politics, global issues, environmental policy, and media-focused history courses at Okanagan College, University College of the North, and other institutions. As a filmmaker and producer, he has contributed to documentary series and museum projects that bring questions of ecology, memory, and justice to broader publics. Further details on his research and media work appear at www.johnbessai.com

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