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Just before the fall session wrapped up, Banff-Cochrane NDP MLA Cameron Westhead made a private member’s motion asking the government to take action to conserve headwaters.

Water from mountains and hills of the Rocky Mountains account for 80 per cent of Alberta’s water. Downstream, Saskatchewan and Manitoba count on it, too.

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The motion passed (motion no. 511) and, although it’s not binding, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative program director Stephen Legault hopes it signals the direction the NDP government will head to preserve Alberta’s water.

Legault has been working on conservation efforts in Alberta for more than two decades.

Although his organization had good relationships with governments past, he doesn’t think former administrations paid enough attention to protecting watersheds.

“There’s a string of bad decisions made over the last 20 or 30 years that have led us to a crisis level,” Legault told Postmedia.