Sludge Watch ==> Ottawa Citizen: Canada, US, Mexico - selling water on the agenda

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

As the US persists in its profligate squandering of groundwater resources, 
they turn thirsty eyes on their neighbours.

Canadians will have to wake up and defend our waters.  As the story says: 
The US regards Canadian water as a 'North American' resource.

American's think: "Whats ours is ours, and whats yours is ours."

Even the US enviro groups have brochures that state that the Great Lakes are 
an 'American national treasure'.   No they aren't.  The Great Lakes equally 
belong to Canada, and indeed there are First Nations native claims to those 
waters.



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Selling water on the agenda at 3-way talks; Canada, U.S., Mexico to discuss 
future trade in precious resource
The Ottawa Citizen
Fri 13 Apr 2007
Page: A3
Section: News
Byline: Kelly Patterson
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

Canadian water is on the table at trilateral talks between politicians, 
businessmen and academics from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

A series of private conferences for the North American Future 2025 Project 
will include the discussion of "water transfers" and diversions, according 
to the outline for the project, a trilateral effort to draft a "blueprint" 
on economic integration for the governments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

The project was launched by the three governments in March 2006 to help 
guide the ongoing Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a wide-ranging 
effort to further integrate the countries' practices on everything from 
environmental rules to security protocols and border controls.

A draft report will be submitted to the three heads of state at an 
partnership summit in Alberta in August.

"It's no secret that the U.S. is going to need water. ... It's no secret 
that Canada is going to have an overabundance of water.

"At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements," says Armand 
Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the project, which is spearheaded by the 
Center for Strategic and International Studies, a powerful Washington 
think-tank, in partnership with the Conference Board of Canada and CIDE, a 
Mexican policy institute.

No one will force Canada to sell its water, he says, stressing that the 
project is "an analytical exercise ... it doesn't commit the governments to 
anything. ...

"Canada will have to make its own decisions. We recognize that," he says, 
recalling that water was "the most sensitive topic in conversations" with 
the Privy Council Office when the project was launched under the former 
Liberal government.

"But they all felt at the end of day that it's an issue that had to be 
looked at."

Water and other environmental issues will be the topic of April 27 talks in 
Calgary to which some environmental research groups, such as the Pembina 
Institute, have been invited, he adds.

News of the talks emerged the same day as the UN's blue-chip panel on 
climate change released a report predicting that the U.S. would clash with 
water-rich Canada as the drought-stricken MidWest looks north to the Great 
Lakes.

Gordon Hodgson of the Ottawa-based Conference Board says that, even though 
it includes the board's logo, the project outline does not necessarily 
reflect his institute's views.

"The reality the Americans perhaps don't fully appreciate is that we don't 
have a whole lot of water to export. ... There are near-scarcity conditions 
in Western Canada, and a lot of water is being used to extract bitumen from 
the oilsands."

He says the outline is just a "catalyst for discussions."

But Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, which obtained the outline, 
says it "shows the American government and its think-tanks ... see Canada's 
water as a North American resource, not Canada's."

Ms. Barlow says there has to be a national debate on Canada's water policy, 
noting that there is no law banning the bulk export of water, even as 
Canadian supplies dwindle.

Canada only has 20 per cent of the world's water "if you drained every lake 
and river," she notes, saying the actual supply, the amount that's 
accessible, is only about seven per cent of the available freshwater supply.

The outline says that "fresh water is running out in many regions of the 
world," particularly the U.S. and Mexico.

By contrast, it says, "Canada possesses about 20 per cent of the Earth's 
fresh water."

It goes on to say that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico need to discuss solutions 
such as bilateral agreements on "water transfers" and the diversion of 
water.

The outline notes that "the overriding future goal of North America is to 
achieve joint optimum utilization of the available water."

Pressure on Canada from the U.S. will be intense, according to the UN 
report, which warns that drought may cut a key Texas aquifer that supplies 
water for two million people by 40 per cent, and decimate the Ogallala 
aquifer, which underlies eight U.S. states.