rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Just add water! Why Canada needs a national water policy

By Meera Karunananthan, Council of Canadians

To most people it’s a no-brainer. You cannot take millions of cubic metres of water out of a watershed and claim that it will not have an impact on the environment. Yet that is the pitch being made to our provinces by right-wing think tanks while the Harper government continues to deny that Canada is vulnerable to bulk water exports.

The lack of legislative protection against bulk water exports has led business lobby groups and right-wing think tanks to take stabs at enticing provincial governments to lift their voluntary bans on bulk water exports through reports that promise billions of dollars in short-term profits.

Just this year, two right-wing think tanks launched reports promoting the commercial export of water to the United States. Most recently, in August 2008, the Montreal Economic Institute a Quebec-based group with a blue-chip board of directors launched a report claiming Quebec could generate $65-billion a year in gross revenue, if it were to export an amount of water equivalent to 300,000 Olympic swimming pools of water per year.

The claim that Quebec or any other province has sufficient renewable water for export purposes runs contrary to the growing body of evidence pointing to a looming water crisis in Canada. Just a week prior to the launch of the MEI report, the Canadian Press obtained an Environment Canada report through an access to information request stating that “Canada’s supplies of fresh water are not as plentiful as once thought, and water shortages threaten to pit provinces (and Canada and the United States) against each other.”

The only thing that has prevented such schemes from going ahead in the past was public pressure.

In April 2007, John Baird stated that “Canada has restrictions in place to prohibit bulk removal of water, including diversion, backed by serious fines and/or imprisonment.” He was referring to the voluntary provincial bans on bulk exports in all provinces except New Brunswick, which can be broken at any time. In fact British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland have all considered licensing schemes for bulk water exports in recent years.

The Charest government is on the record as having expressed an interest in pursuing bulk water exports as a source of revenue for the province. As Maude Barlow states in her book Blue Covenant, “In 2004, the Quebec government (of Premier Jean Charest) announced it was interested in pursuing bulk water exports from the province in spite of its 2001 ban. Public opposition forced the government to back off.” And earlier this year, delegates at the Quebec Liberal Party convention passed motions favouring export sales of water.

If the Charest government goes ahead and sells its water across the border, other provinces may be forced to lift their bans as well under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA defines water as a “service” and an “investment” and will protect the interests of foreign corporations investing in water. The trade deal does not allow for inconsistent treatment of foreign investors. This means that once a Canadian province allows water to be diverted outside its borders, foreign investors in other province can demand the same “national treatment”.

And widely publicized reports are not the only mechanism being used by the big business community to pressure our governments to export water.

The Canadian government is also facing pressure to export water through the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America – a business-led plan to harmonize policies and regulations and to facilitate corporate access to natural resources in Canada, the United States and Mexico.  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 were actively discussing bulk water exports.

When information about a closed-meeting on bulk water exports to take place in Calgary involving high-ranking government officials and business representatives from all three countries was released to the media, it generated a strong public outcry. The Conservative government was forced to withdraw its delegation from the meeting.

Prompted by the evidence obtained by the Council of Canadians that the SPP would force Canada to export water to the United States, the House of Commons passed a motion in June 2007, requesting that the federal government begin talks with the United States and Mexico partners to have water excluded from NAFTA.

Not surprisingly, the Conservative government has failed to follow through on this motion.

What is surprising is that water has not been seen as a key election issue. Given the implications of Canada’s failure to create federal legislative safeguards to protect Canada’s freshwater and the growing evidence that our watersheds will not be able to support current levels of consumption and contamination, Canadian voters must ensure that commitment to a national water policy is a deciding factor in the outcome of this election.

Meera Karunananthan is the National Water Campaigner for the Council of Canadians