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U.S. environmentalist Robert Kennedy again warns Canada about bulk water exports

May 23, 2008
Posted by Meera Karunananthan

U.S. environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. is again warning Canada that the U.S. is thirsty for northern water, and he’s urging Canadians to pressure the government to enact tougher laws banning bulk water removals.

"We are in the midst of a water crisis that has no end in sight, and the place people are looking to solve it is Canada," Kennedy said in Peterborough on Thursday at a conference for the International Association for Great Lakes Research, according to an article today in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.

"If you talk to the engineers and the planning and policy makers in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Phoenix and Las Vegas… they’ll say, ‘Well we don’t have to worry about this because we’ll just get the water from Canada.’ "

Kennedy recognized the broad consensus in Canada against bulk water transfers, highlighted in a recent poll conducted by Environics for the Council of Canadians. According to that poll, 88 per cent of Canadians think Canada should adopt a comprehensive national water policy that recognizes clean drinking water as a basic human right and also bans the bulk exports of fresh water.

“The government has been very slow to act on that consensus,” said Kennedy, adding, “The federal government has not been a friendly government to the environment, they’ve basically followed George W. Bush’s path of hostility.”

Environment Minister John Baird repeated his erroneous claim that Canada’s waters are safe from bulk water exports. In fact, there is no strong framework for banning the water exports to the United States, and NAFTA recognizes water as a commodity, good and service that should move across borders free from government intervention.