Please allow me to extend the very best wishes of the United Nations to all.

I would like to begin by observing that water is already a pillar of Canada's foreign policy and has been so for more than a century. Since the signing of the boundary waters treaty in 1909, Canada and the United States have shown the entire world how water can be peaceably shared through co-operation.

Even in this relationship, we should be reminded that no pillar can stand indefinitely without being carefully maintained. As the U.S. becomes more crowded and hotter, water has come to the fore in terms of both domestic and foreign policy there. The Pentagon has already identified the declining reliability and quality of water supplies across the country as a national security threat. The U.S. has, at the same time, identified water as a potential pillar of its own foreign policy.

As Canada contemplates extending the benefit of what it knows about and how it governs water as a pillar of its broader foreign policy, it should see its southern neighbour as a simulacrum of the threats and opportunities with which it will be presented as it engages with potential beneficiaries of Canada's expertise abroad. Canada should also be careful to see the needs of other nations reflected in its own immediate challenges in managing water at a time of rapid loss of hydrologic stability and climate emergency globally. In this regard, Canada has much to offer the rest of the world.

In 2018, I was the lead author of a United Nations University report on Canada's capacity to shine on the world stage by assisting other countries in need of help to achieve water and water-related climate targets of the UN's sustainable development goals.

The conclusion of that report was that, if carefully deployed through measured foreign policy and skilful diplomacy, helping the rest of the world address the global water crisis could re-establish Canada's reputation on the world stage in a manner as positive and enduring as how peacekeeping once defined our national identity abroad. More importantly, by making water a pillar of its foreign policy, Canada has the opportunity to play a key role in taking the global water crisis problem to the UN Security Council to urge the UN and its member states to develop a serious global water action agenda to address the growing human security challenges, especially as they now immediately relate to agriculture and food security.

The 2018 report made it clear that all the pieces that would be needed to make water an effective pillar of foreign policy were already in place. The educational components were there, as were the research capacity, the technological innovation and the critical long-term experience in water governance, especially as it now relates to ongoing reconciliation with indigenous peoples.

All that is needed, we reported, is a unifying agent to marshal all of these capacities together and point them in the same outbound direction. In other words, harnessing and fully realizing the Canadian water sector's substantial outbound capacity will need federal government coordination and support.

The creation of a Canada water agency could potentially be one means by which Canada advances water policy at home, while at the same time significantly enhancing its visibility and impact on the global water stage, but it can't do it by itself. The urgency of responding to climate change-induced acceleration of the global water cycle should be an impetus for governments at all levels, but especially federally, to work harder to coordinate and orchestrate the significant capacity in Canada's water sector for the benefit of the country and the world.

Our recommendations are to harness and coordinate the huge capacity that already exists. Use the huge potential domestic links to the UN, such as the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, to help you step more boldly onto the world stage. Then, show up on the world stage. Participate in global water awareness initiatives. Make water the theme in the Canadian pavilion at the Osaka world's fair next year. Get on board with the UN glacier year in 2025 and host the next UN global water conference.

It will not just be Canadians that will benefit from doing so. Every country to which Canada extends foreign aid in the form of shared solutions to the growing global water crisis will thank us also.

As a Canadian working for the UN, I would be very proud to see that.

Thank you.