[All] water control must remain local

[Norah & Richard]

Water control must remain local <http://yrea.org/blog/?p=662>
Jun 04, 2010 -- 3:00 PM

http://www.yorkregion.com/opinion/editorial/article/829238--water-control-must-remain-local

We have reason to cheer and reason to worry.It's good news that the 
federal government, through Environment Minister Jim Prentice, promised 
municipalities across the country to help upgrade local water delivery 
systems and rebuild more than 25 per cent of our wastewater treatment 
infrastructure.

He made this commitment at last weekend's Federation of Canadian 
Municipalities conference in Toronto, in the face of new and stringent 
federal regulations unveiled in March to protect our water supply. Some 
1,000 municipal waterworks need repairs or complete rebuilding to ensure 
safe and secure water for residents.

The tenth anniversary last month of the Walkerton tragedy reminds us 
that tainted water can still kill in our modern industrialized nation 
and that small or large, municipal water systems must be safeguarded.

But while we cheer federal and municipal partnerships to improve water 
delivery in our towns and cities, a more global threat to our water 
needs our attention.

A Canadian trade lawyer is sounding the alarm that foreign companies 
would gain access to our municipal water services -- and maybe even our 
water -- if the free trade deal now being negotiated between Canada and 
the European Union becomes a reality.

The EU apparently wants drinking water services to be included in trade 
agreements, opening the door to multinational firms, Canadian Steve 
Shrybman told the Vancouver-based advocacy group Centre for Civic 
Governance.

He joins with other experts to warn that Canada should not sell its 
water resources and should be very wary of signing trade agreements 
which might allow international investment rules to trump locally owned 
or managed waterworks.

The Council of Canadians is another nationalistic voice declaring that 
Europe is "thirsty for Canadian water" and wants unlimited access to 
invest in our water services.

Think that's preposterous? Think 407! Our own Ontario government sold 
the toll highway to a Spanish consortium -- which promply raised the 
rates on every driver using the road, and can continue to do so with 
impunity.

Why would we take all the small but vital steps through York Region's 
Water for Tomorrow campaign to save our water resources -- such as 
buying low-flush toilets and showerheads or rainbarrels -- just to let a 
foreign company invest in and assume partial control of our regional 
water systems?

Think of all the work done to improve the water quality in the Lake 
Simcoe watershed and the cleanup over decades of our rivers that used to 
be dumping grounds. Why would we let those hard-fought environmental 
projects go to waste?

And if we think oil is the "gold" in the ground everyone wants today, 
water is likely to be the resource other countries desperately want in 
future.

Many Canadians believe we should retain firm control over our water and 
water resources.

While we should be grateful our federal government understands it must 
help local governments modernize and protect our water supply, we must 
also ensure our MPs and federal negotiators know foreign companies 
should never have access to or control of our water.


<http://yrea.org/blog/?tag=water>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20100609/406e09af/attachment.html>