Sign the Open Letter

Save Our Slopes is collecting signatures on an urgent open letter to the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, the Honourable Grant Hunter. Our ask is simple, it's time for an Act that protects Alberta's precious Eastern Slopes Headwaters before its too late. 

Please take a moment to add your name today. 

TO: Hon. Grant Hunter, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas
RE: We need a Headwaters Protection Act to secure Alberta's future
 

Dear Minister Hunter,

I am writing to urge you to champion a new vision for the Eastern Slopes…one that prioritizes long-term water security over short-term resource extraction.

The Eastern Slopes are not just a landscape; they are Alberta’s most critical piece of public infrastructure. Just as we rely on hospitals, roads, and treatment plants, our communities cannot function without the clean water these landscapes provide. They are our original water treatment system, filtering and releasing the steady flow that sustains our farms, cities, and economy.

However, this infrastructure is currently failing because our regulatory system is broken.

Right now, decisions affecting our headwaters are made project by project, ignoring the bigger picture. This has led to a "death by a thousand cuts" scenario where the cumulative impacts of logging, road-building, coal exploration, and recreation are permanently damaging the watershed. We are dismantling the very systems that protect us from floods, droughts, and rising water treatment costs.

To fix this, we need more than temporary pauses. We need a Headwaters Protection and Restoration Act.

I am calling on you to support modern legislation that:

• Recognizes Headwaters as Infrastructure: Managing them with the same caution and priority we give to our built infrastructure.

• Sets Enforceable Ecological Limits: Establishing hard limits on land use based on science, ensuring that human activity never exceeds the watershed’s capacity to recover.

• Manages Cumulative Effects: Moving away from isolated approvals to a holistic approach that accounts for the combined impact of all industries.

• Prioritizes Restoration: Investing in the repair of damaged landscapes—reclaiming old roads and restoring wetlands—to bolster our resilience against climate change.

We cannot continue to manage our most vital resource with outdated rules. Please take immediate action to enact a legislative framework that protects our water for generations to come.