Public Utility Privatization Up for Discussion
Wednesday, March 7, 2012 @ 10:48 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The privatization of water is the focus of a special meeting set for the College of New Caledonia this evening.
In addition to screening a movie about the European experience with keeping water a public resource, the meeting organizers will present the most recent case in Canada, where Abbotsford was asked to enter into a P3 agreement to bring water from Stave Lake as a new water source for Abbotsford.
The $291 million project was put to the electorate in last October’s municipal election and 74% voted no to the proposal. That result was achieved despite the City of Abbotsford spending $200 thousand dollars on a campaign to convince voters the P3 was the best option for a new water source for the community.
Public Private Partnerships Canada is reviewing several water and wastewater applications. Opponents say the reality is, private companies are about making money, and water should never be turned into a commodity for profit.
CUPE’s privatization expert, Keith Reynolds, says there is a continuing pressure from the United States to have access to Canada’s water supply. He says there is also growing pressure to lease out water systems and sewage systems to be operated by private companies. He says there are negotiations underway right now to develop a trade agreement between Canada and Europe, and one of the things the Europeans want is access to “bid on our water systems”.
Reynolds says it has long been suggested that future wars won’t be fought over oil, it will be over water, “Water just won’t be money, it will be power.”
The session this evening at CNC is free, and will get underway at 7:00.
Comments
This is downright scary. I watched a documentary on water wars in 3rd world countries where thier corrupt gov’t sold away thier water rights for profit and now the citizens can’t afford the water and multinationals are bottling and shipping it worldwide. We here in BC and in Canada should NEVER even entertain the idea of privatizing water rights, especially to foreign multinationals.
I agree with But.
Did you happen to read that European trade officials were in Canada in the past two weeks to meet with Canadian officials on a new trade agreement called CETA–the Canada-EU Comprhensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Privatization of public utilities and services is one of many items under negotiation. That includes the sell-off of water resources to international corporations. As in China being told Enbridge is a done deal, it seems we’re not being told what the feds are doing in this area. Have a look.
Access to clean drinking water needs to be enshrined as a right of every human being. Period.
I would fight to the death to keep water from being privatized.
I agree with But and feel much the same as Sine Nomine. If our feds give away OUR water rights, then who knows what will happen. This is a very scary issue.
Would love to see this show tonight but have another commitment.
Water rights are regulated Provincially, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about the Feds. But with the BC Liberals in office…..
And our provincial political puppets are going to stand up to the feds in support of our rights? Not by what I have seen sofar.
Exactly socredible, they’d sell their own mothers.
We can never allow our water to become privatized PERIOD!!!
Sounds like something the lieberals would jump all over. Another way to stick it to Joe citizen.
I agree with Sine Nomine!
Alberta water battle hits court – April 2008
“The first legal challenge of the province’s southern water limits will surface in a Calgary courtroom today as a new report warns Alberta’s scarcity is a wake-up call to the rest of Canada.”
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=ebfdbace-57f3-41ce-8f83-89f35364a1c3
Sptember 2008
Alberta to study water rights
“The provincial government will begin public consultations to decide whether it needs to change the way Alberta’s water rights are divvied up, the environment minister says”
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=942576bd-ef92-475b-b35b-a5fd4289ab74
Water for life – Government of alberta
http://www.waterforlife.alberta.ca/index.html
Canadian Institute of Resource Law
Defining Aboriginal Rights to Water in Alberta: Do they still exist? How extensive are they? – April 2010
http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/47813/1/DefiningOP29w.pdf
Natural Resource Trouble in Alberta
Canada Conflict — Water Shortage versus Land Owners versus Petroleum Profits?
“Water is one of Canada’s greatest resources and in recent years, one of its greatest concerns. In Alberta, the oil industry has an insatiable thirst for water. But the water reserves are drying up and ranchers are saying enough is enough.”
http://www.progress.org/water16.htm
So, we are just now waking up to this ……Obviously we think wa have enough.
Anyone hear of the Columbia River Treaty?
It was signed in 1961 the main prupose of which was to guarantee the USA 19.12 km³ of usable reservoir storage behind three large dams for purposes of hydro generation and flood control.
The Treaty requires the U.S. to deliver to Canada, on an ongoing basis, one-half of the estimated increase in U.S. downstream power benefits.
The USA also made a one-time monetary payment for one-half of the value of the estimated future flood damages prevented in the U.S. during the first 60 years of the Treaty. The U.S. paid a total of C$69.6 million for that.
Interstingly, of course, it is a country to country agreement.
“In recent years, the Treaty has garnered significant attention not because of what it contains, but because of what it does not contain. A reflection of the times in which it was negotiated, the Treaty’s emphasis is on hydroelectricity and flood control”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Treaty
So, we have been dealiong with this for ssome time ….. yet we have not been dealing with it.
There is, of course, also the Red River Treaty dealing with flood control as well.
This is really not new territory, just a new twist.
It is one thing to sell off water rights, (which is what was done with the Columbia River Treaty is some ways} and another to put in place an operating agreement.
I think we need to know what we are talking about.
What the hell the session is on at 7pm tonight. Great timing….
I would not worry about missing the meeting.
It sounds that these people are confusing the right to remove water and sell it in some other jurisdiction and operating a a municipal water and sewage system over a fixed period of time for a price.
Then again, they may not be confusing the issue at all. They may want to make it look controversial on purpose.
I do not think anyone is proposing to remove any water in the Abbotsford case to sell it to Alberta or the USA or China or Afghanistan.
So tell me, why are we not controlling other resources such as gas, oil, coal, timber, etc. Plenty of foreigners own those types of resources and shipping it off to other countries?
I hope that the government is not foolish enough to sell our water resources too. We could live without oil and natural gas, and minerals, but not without water.
metalman.
As that old drunken Liberal leader once said; “B.C. is for sale!”
“So tell me, why are we not controlling other resources such as gas, oil, coal, timber, etc.” .. because we allow politicians to do as they please it seems.
Selling municipal water and sewer systems is about guaranteeing profits for European banks from a commodity that is essential for life and hostage to monopoly. It should be considered treason if it is allowed to be enshrined in any trade agreement limiting our democratic right to protect these as municipal services.
What Harper is doing is negotiating in secret a trade agreement that allows for a hostile takeover of water and sewer services in Canadian municipalities… and he will enforce this by making grants to tax starved municipalities conditional on P3 partnerships. The foreign multinationals will then move in to harvest the Canadian municipalities across the country from coast to coast to coast….
Yes we shuld blame Harper for all this. Im sure he stays up nights figuring out how he can screw us.
I guess Harper is responsibile for all the debt that these municipalities have. Pr George has approx 120 Million. We borrowed this money and pissed it away, and now we cry like babies because we cant fix our roads or our water, and sewer.
We just spent (or we are spending) $18 Million of River Road, $36 Million on the Airport Runway Expansion, $26 Million more or less on Boundry Road, and of course $15 Million on Community Energy System. These are rough numbers but they add up to roughly $100 Million dollars, not counting interest on loans.
Harper had (nothing) to do with this BS. It is mostly the fault of local Government being so inept they couldnt tie their shoe laces.
Palopu are you saying if Harper provides a municipality a grant with strings attached that the municipality won’t jump for it?
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