FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2008

Water Privateers Should Do Their Homework, says Council of Canadians

Ottawa – The Montréal Economic Institute’s (MEI) proposal to sell Quebec’s water is highly misleading and uninformed, argues the Council of Canadians. The MEI report, which argues for the sale of water from Quebec, is based on the myth of abundant supplies of water that has been discredited by a growing body of evidence including the recently uncovered Environment Canada report that warns of Canada’s looming freshwater crisis.

"The Montréal Economic Institute should do its homework. We are actually facing water shortages in Canada,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, and author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. “Displacing large amounts of water from one area would spread desertification in an age of global warming where we should see conservation strategies administered by the public sector instead.”

The Council of Canadians, which promotes water as a human right and public resource, is opposed to the treatment of water as a commodity. The organization argues that trading water in a market system would determine access to water by ability to pay.

“We know there's pressure from the U.S. to export Canada's water,” says Meera Karunananthan, the Council of Canadians’ national water campaigner. “If Quebec were to lift its ban on bulk water exports, other provinces would be forced to do so as well under the provisions of NAFTA.”

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) defines water as a “service” and an “investment,” leaving Canadian water vulnerable to thirsty foreign investors. Once Canada allows water to be diverted outside our borders for large scale industrial purposes, foreign investors must be given the same “national treatment” as Canadian companies. Canada has no ban on bulk exports. There is a voluntary provincial ban on bulk exports, which can be lifted by any province at any time, and would it not withstand a NAFTA challenge. In recent years, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland have all considered licensing schemes for bulk water exports.

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For More Information:

Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians, Ottawa, Ph: 613-233-4487 x 249;