VZCZCXRO0521
PP RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHMT RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #0547 1982013
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 172013Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9670
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000547 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CA SENV
SUBJECT: CANADIANS SEE PEMBINA DIKE CONCERNS AS "ONE OF A 
SUITE OF ISSUES" 
 
REF: STATE 74088 
 
¶1. Summary. Canada sees the Pembina dike/road and the other 
water issues in the North Dakota/Manitoba border region as 
carrying risks for both sides and which would be best treated 
as a "suite of issues." They are interested in greater 
bilateral involvement at the Federal Government level, but 
also wish to mitigate risk and negative perceptions in 
Manitoba by, ideally, moving ahead with both mitigation on 
the Pembina dike/road and the building of the Devils Lake 
filtration system. End summary. 
 
¶2. EMIN and Senior EST FSN discussed reftel with DFAIT DG for 
North America Kim Butler and his water/environmental expert 
Stephen Gluck. We stressed the points in reftel and left 
copies of the aerial photos after describing the viewpoints. 
As expected, Butler (Canada's former Consul General in 
Minneapolis) was well aware of the issue, the geography of 
the region and the impact of this road/dike on North Dakota. 
Butler stated that for Canada at the Federal level, the 
Pembina "road" was one of a number of important water-related 
issues in the North Dakota/Manitoba relationship which in his 
mind formed a "suite of issues" that needed to be looked at 
holistically. These issues have important ramifications for 
both sides and "probably need some more objective federal 
level supervision on both sides." 
 
¶3. Butler took EMIN's point that although there was a certain 
thematic construct, the USG would prefer to look for 
solutions to these issues, each on its own merits. 
Nevertheless, Butler replied that he saw all of these issues 
(but most immediately Pembina, Devils Lake filtration and 
salinity issues) as posing significant risks for Canada and 
the U.S. They should thus be dealt with by Federal levels, 
whose foremost concern is minimizing risk more broadly, 
rather than remaining caught up in a longstanding local 
dynamic. 
 
¶4. In that light, he stressed DFAIT's view that it was "time 
to build the filtration system for Devils Lake whether or not 
the science is completed." Butler's rationale: Ottawa is 
limited to jawboning Manitoba on issues like Pembina given 
their federal structure; the U.S. has the same jurisdictional 
issues; there is so much bad blood between North Dakota and 
Manitoba that no scientific study may ever succeed in 
convincing Manitoba that the filtration system is not 
necessary. Butler continued that he would have a fair amount 
of confidence that if we were to build the filtration system 
that Ottawa could successfully convince Manitoba to make 
fully adequate culverts in the Pembina road/dike. (He left 
open the possibility that Canada could find some funding to 
help cover the costs, joking that at least one could say that 
the filtration project is "shovel ready" in terms of stimulus 
funding.) "Let's not call this linkage, exactly," he said, 
"rather just a confluence of needs that helps both sides do 
the right thing in real time." 
 
¶5. Butler also said that the IJC's Red River Board has now 
started hydrological studies to look at the overall effects 
of roads on both sides of this border. (Comment: he was 
clearly implying that Manitoba has concerns about certain 
road/dikes constructed on the U.S. side. End comment.) 
 
Visit Canada,s North American partnership community at 
http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
 
BREESE