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WATER: Council meeting in Calgary to prepare citizens to oppose bulk water exports to the US

(AlbertaIndex, April 26, Thursday) --- The Council of Canadians is holding an open meeting in Calgary today to discuss the ‘looming threats’ to the country’s water supply posed by North American integration.

          The meeting is aimed at gathering civil society actors and the general public to discuss and share concerns with the process and content of closed-door meetings that the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Conference Board of Canada and the Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE) in Mexico will be hosting in Calgary today and tomorrow.

         

“The meetings organized by CSIS are the latest round of private meetings taking place within the context of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), which has not been debated by the legislatures of the three participating governments,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians.
           “The big business community and corporate lobby groups have been granted executive level access to the integration process. No equivalent role has been granted to labour groups, civil society or even Parliament in Canada.”
          The Council of Canadians said it obtained a leaked document revealing that bulk water exports would be on the agenda at the private meetings where government representatives and private sector actors from Canada, the US and Mexico will be congregating.
          “I am concerned that the Canadian government would agree to participate in a process where the dice is so heavily loaded in favour of US interests,” says Ralph Pentland, former Director of the Water Planning and Management Branch of Environment Canada. “We have a Treaty (the Boundary Waters Treaty) and an institution (the International Joint Commission) that enables us to deal with our neighbours to the south as equals. We should use it.”
          Quebec-based Eau Secours is concerned North American  integration will result in the commodification of water.
          “We oppose the continentalization of water for market purposes," says Danielle Julien, chairperson of Eau Secours' international committee.
          The groups hope their counter-meeting will raise awareness about the impacts of North American integration on natural resources and prepare Canadians to oppose upcoming integration talks.
          They will be meeting in the Azul Room - Hotel Arts - 119 -12th Avenue SW Calgary, T2R 0G8. Telephone: (403) 2664611 Toll-free 1-800-6619378. Council members will be available to meet the press from 1:30 to 2:00 pm, and the public from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.



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