Protecting Our Water

Written by Elma Parker Monday, 06 October 2008 11:35

Water is vital to people's health and livelihoods. And yet, in Canada, there is no national strategy to address urgent water issues, and no federal leadership to conserve and protect our water. The Canadian federal water policy is over 20 years old and badly outdated leaving our freshwater to face crises including contamination, shortages and pressures to export to the United States.

In April, 2007, the Council of Canadians obtained a leaked document produced by a Washington think tank, revealing that business and government leaders in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are actively discussing bulk water exports. 

They met in Calgary on April 27, 2007 to discuss the issue in a closed-door meeting as part of a larger discussion on North American integration.

We know from several leaked documents, U.S. organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Centre for Strategic, and international studies that bulk water exports and other contentious issues related to water management have been discussed in trilateral talks linked to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).

"No item -- not Canadian water, not Mexican oil, not American anti-dumping laws -- is 'off the table', rather contentious or intractable issues will simply require more time to ripen politically," according to a leaked summary of a 2005 task force meeting in Toronto. 

Task force members also considered "crafting a resource pact" to allow greater intra-regional trade and investment in certain non-renewable natural resources, such as oil, gas and fresh water.

Building a North American community is not simply the product of an ambitious think tank.  The Council on Foreign Relations carries enormous influence in Washington.  Similarly, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) has been the driving force behind the SPP in Canada.  Thomas d’Aquino regularly attends Security and Prosperity Partnership meetings and has direct input into the integration process through his access to the North American Competitiveness Council, housed within the CCCE.  If he is discussing bulk water exports with his American counterparts then clearly the issue is very much "on the table."

A round table on the Future of the North American Environment held April 27, 2007, in Calgary, discussed "water consumption, water transfers and artificial diversions of bulk water," with an aim of achieving "joint optimum utilization of the available [North American] water."

Canada's larger concern is the threat of large-scale commercial water exports to the thirsty United States.  Water is considered a tradable ‘good’ in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which means that if any province allows commercial exports of water to begin, it will be very difficult to turn the tap off. 

Since water is also an investment, American water corporations (or the U.S. subsidiaries of French corporations) could sue for damages if the Canadian government changed the rules and tried to assert control over Canadian water after the companies had set up a commercial presence.  So activist groups in Canada have paid attention to attempts to export Canadian water for profit, knowing this would trigger the NAFTA process.

On January 1, 1989, the Mulroney government passed into law the Canada - U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It assured that no water ban would be forthcoming.  In this agreement, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that followed four years later, water is a tradable good subject to all the protections of an international treaty.  

Since under these treaties "no party may adopt or maintain a prohibition or restriction on the exportation or sale for export of any good destined for the territory of another party" (meaning the government of Canada can no longer impose export controls on water), it was clear that any law banning the commercial export of this ‘good’ to the United States would run afoul of the trade deals.  The government at first denied that water was in the trade agreement because the word water does not appear in the body of the texts.  However, both trade agreements adopted the definition of a ‘good’ agreed to previously in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.  That list included ordinary natural water of all kinds.

World water shortages are no longer just theory, they are happening as is climate change!  Not enough is being done to protect the earth. We and our government must act now to:

    * protect our water from the NAFTA agreement
    * implement water conservation programs
    * implement climate change strategies
    * be a world leader on the environmental front

By Elma Parker
Northumberland Chapter - Council of Canadians