Mr. Speaker, Western Canada is home to one of the world's largest freshwater systems, with a river basin flowing from Alberta throughout the territory to the Arctic Ocean. These rivers are sacred to my people, the lifeblood of our communities, sustaining our culture, traditions and way of life, and hold deep significance for our First Nations, Inuit, and Metis in the Northwest Territories. It is also home to Canada's largest oil sands deposit where a sprawling industry complex of mines, wells, and Alberta use millions of barrels of water each day to produce a bitumen.
This creates a growing network of tailing ponds now holding about 1.5 trillion litres of toxic water waste. Any leaks into the watershed would have devastating impacts on the ecosystem and the health of our communities. Our government signed a transboundary agreement in 2014 to ensure downstream communities have proper monitoring yet in recent years, spills like last year's toxic leak took months to be disclosed.
This agreement has no enforcement. There are no consequences if Alberta fails to act. Now in Alberta, it's proposing Bill 7 which amends their Water Act, and two amendments are deeply concerning.
First, they want to fast-track the treatment and release of tailing waters but the science isn't there. Timelines are unclear and treatment is unidentified. Second, the proposed merging water basin directly violates our transboundary treaty. Diverting water at a time when northern water levels are at a 70 year low, a clear sign of environmental distress, putting our communities at real risk. It's no surprise that First Nations of Alberta are taking their government to court, and Indigenous governments here in the North are raising the alarm.
Our government must step up. If the agreement has no enforcement, it doesn't hold water. The Minister of ECC must take a firm stand and the Premier must ensure our territory and Indigenous governments have a united voice. I will have questions for the Minister of ECC later today on how we can protect our freshwater. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.