Alberta’s environmental grade point average continues to suffer, thanks to its failure to universally improve drinking water or protect water sources. Vancouver-based environmental charity Ecojustice gave Alberta a C- in its third water report, Waterproof 3, released Nov. 15.

Despite the provincial government having recently changed the name of the Ministry of Environment to Ministry of Environment and Water, the province no longer merits the B grade it received from Ecojustice in 2006.

Carrie Sancartier of the Alberta Ministry of Environment and Water says Albertans should not worry about the safety of their drinking water.

“We think that some of the information is misleading. Alberta is doing quite a bit to ensure the protection of source water,” she says.

“We think that our legislation is very robust and that legislation does a great deal.”

Sancartier points out that while Ecojustice criticizes Alberta for being one of the few jurisdictions with no legally protected drinking water sources, the province does have regional watershed planning committees charged with determining all of their own water needs.

Alberta did not receive the lowest grade, a distinction that belongs to the feds, which received an F “for lagging in almost every aspect of water protection for which it is responsible.” Ontario scored an A for leading the country in potable water standards and source protection.