Water Meets Money – Part Three

Global Water Summit May 16 – 18 Madrid Spain.

Prime Minister Mulroney 1987 – PM Justin Trudeau 2019 - Thirty-two years of Failure

Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1987 mandated Minister Tom McMillan, P.C., M.P., Hillsborough Minister of the Environment to enunciate his government’s fresh water policy. 

Thirty-two years later in 2019 Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated Jonathan Wilkinson MP for North Vancouver Minister of Environment and Climate Change to enunciate his government’s fresh water policy.

The two documents are similar, in fact the Liberal 2019 document relies heavily on the   Conservative 1987 document. What is obvious in reading the documents is this; that after 32 years and several Conservative and Liberal governments later the problems of fresh water management and supply remain serious and unresolved.

As we mentioned and documented in Part 01  and Part 02, the issue is capitalist profiteering from a publicly owned irreplaceable resource. The intent of both Canadian and US investors to fatten their portfolios from exploiting Canada’s vast fresh water resources is unrelenting and must be opposed whenever it arises. It is urgent that we do so.

P3 for profit companies have made inroads on public water utilities.

Water is trading as a commodity on the futures market of stock exchanges.

International conferences of private water providers entitle their agenda as “Water Meets Money”.

Utility rates for water are rising all across the country falling most heavily on wage earners and pensioners.

Public services such as schools, hospitals, recreational facilities and municipal water suppliers confront rising budgetary costs for water use and upgrades.

First Nations communities continue to be without clean fresh water for drinking, sanitation and cooking, a country-wide scandal and disgrace.

The 2019 Liberal document entitled “Canada Water Agency Discussion Paper” contains sections describing serous threats to fresh water supplies and use, followed by a series of bland questions the public is invited to comment on and submit replies to by May 21st 2021. The document makes clear the public is asked for comments with no commitment on the part of the government to act on the findings.

The Council of Canadians (COC) who have taken the lead on the movement to safeguard Canada’s fresh water is calling upon Canadians to respond to the questions posed in the discussion paper to and send replies to the Trudeau-Freeland Liberal government and the ministers responsible.

The (COC) appeal for action can be read here.

We call for full support for the (COC) campaign and take the opportunity to re-state, in addition to the COC appeal, what we consider the fundamental changes that must occur to ensure Canadians retain sovereign ownership and control of our vast and irreplaceable fresh water supplies.

Conservative and Liberal Government trivializing the issue of Canada’s fresh water as one of management rather than sovereign ownership must be condemned and rejected.

What is needed is to take the matter into our own hands and demand federal laws that safeguard Canadian ownership and control of fresh water and its development as a not for profit common good.

Canadians can answer the questions posed in the Trudeau-Freeland- Jonathan Wilkinson Canadian Water Agency Paper.

A People’s Plan for Fresh Water Development and Use 

1.      The Canadian Water Agency that is needed is one that has the power to administer and enforce, by an Act of Parliament and a constitutional amendment, laws and legislation, that upholds Canada’s sovereign ownership and control of its vital water resources.

2.      Such a law must commit Canada to uphold and implement the UN Declaration on Water as a Human Right.

3.      Such a law to be effective must prohibit foreign or domestic finance capitalist interests to develop, divert, export or profiteer from Canada’s fresh water resources.

4.      Engaging in trading, stock market speculation of fresh water as a commodity by any entity must be banned in Canada and violations treated as a crime.

5.      Accompanying such legislation must be a publicly owned and controlled plan of water development in the public interest to resolve all of the problems identified in the 1987 and 2019 Federal government policy papers and be fully funded from a reduction in arms spending and corporate subsidies.

6.      Such a law must prohibit the present wanton and unaccountable industrial, resource extraction and manufacturing industries use of fresh water.

7.      Such a law must provide for assistance to all cities and towns, rural and indigenous and First Nations communities who urgently require new infrastructure and improvements to existing infrastructure such that it enables every community in Canada that lacks adequate and clean water to have it.

It Takes a Fight to Win

Such a people’s plan for water development and its use will be realized if it is organized and fought for as part of the urgent needs of all of the labouring people of Canada. Such a struggle to win is proposed in the full knowledge that it will bring every genuine anti-monopoly organization that participates, into a sharp confrontation with private investor capital and the governments that serve its interests.  

That confrontation is unavoidable and the only path that will lead to the care and protection of Canada’s magnificent abundant water resources and guarantee it will be there for future generations of Canadians.