(OTTAWA) The revelation this week that the government of Newfoundland may permit a private company to export Canadian fresh water abroad reinforces the Council’s claim that, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada may soon lose control over its supply of fresh water. This, despite the Ontario government’s promise yesterday to revoke a similar permit it gave a private company two weeks ago to export water from Lake Superior.

"Unless federal government action is taken very soon, it is almost certain that Canada will be exporting water within the year," warns Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. "The federal government must act now to protect Canadian water. But it cannot do so while still under NAFTA obligation."

Once water is traded, it triggers the National Treatment provision of NAFTA, allowing both the U.S. and Mexico access to the bulk extraction and sale of Canadian water. Even if the federal government expressly banned the export of water, as it is being urged to do, the very act of naming water a tradeable commodity would trigger NAFTA. "American ‘investors’," says Barlow, "would be granted NAFTA rights in the very law that excludes them. Under chapter 11 – the provision that gives companies the right to sue governments for lost future profits – they could claim financial compensation."

"All of this forces a question on the federal government," says Barlow, "What is more important to Canada – NAFTA or our water?"

The Council of Canadians has been a prominent opponent of both the Canada/U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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