.Water control must stay local

Simcoe.com June 3 2010
We have reason to cheer and reason to worry.
It’s good news the federal government is promising to help municipalities across the country to upgrade water delivery systems and rebuild more than 25 per cent of our wastewater treatment infrastructure.
Environment Minister Jim Prentice 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 10th 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 Canada should not sell its water resources and should be very wary of signing trade agreements that 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 promptly 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 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 control of our water.