Paul Workman reports for CBC TV CBC NEWS ONLINE
COVERAGE:
CLIP:  CBC News Online's Bob Sudeyko talks with Sarah Miller of the Canadian Environmental Law Association about the growing demand for Canadian Water.
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Sun 10/21/01 WATER EXPERTS WARN OF SHRINKING SUPPLIES
Regional Director of Environment Canada, John Mills, says it's time
for Canadians to acknowledge water is a limited resource.
Wed 7/18/01 PMO REJECTS BULK WATER EXPORTS IN WAKE OF REPORT
The Prime Minister's Office has reconfirmed that Canadian water will not
be sold in bulk to the U.S.
Mon 8/6/01 MCDONOUGH CALLS FOR FEDERAL LAW BANNING WATER EXPORTS
Alexa McDonough, the leader of the New Democratic Party, says Canadian
exports of fresh water should be banned.
Wed 8/1/01 WEST ISLAND WATERING BAN
People who live in five communities on Montreal's west island will have
to cut back on washing cars and watering lawns, at least for the next
two days. If they don't, they can be fined up to $300.
Thu 5/31/01 7:00 PM OTTAWA DENIES BACKSTROKE ON WATER EXPORTS
Efforts to put a price on Canada's fresh-water supply are based on
resource protection not economics, Environment Minister David Anderson
insisted Thursday.
Tue 5/29/01 7:29 AM Say no to the dams
In a move suggesting that the provincial government has either taken leave of its senses or is gearing up for the next election, Natural Resources Minister Jacques Brassard has announced that private buyers can build hydro-electric dams on 24 of the province's most beautiful and well-used recreational waterways. The government has put no minimum price on the 36 sites it has listed as potential dam sites. If all 36 sites were dammed, private promoters could generate as much as 425 megawatts of electricity, [that is a lot!] even though barely a year and a half ago the Quebec Energy Board recommended they be given a maximum quota of 150 MW.
Gilles Lefrancois, the head of the Quebec Association for the Production of Renewable Energy, an association of private energy producers, was particularly pleased by the energy board's abandoning the concept of a "socially acceptable price" of energy in favour of a "commercially acceptable" price.
Mon 5/28/01 7:29 AM Dam it? Outdoor lovers outraged
By: LYNN MOORE The Gazette
Quebec's largest white-water festival will be wiped out and sports on the popular Rouge River and other waterways might be crippled if the province goes ahead with its small-dams project, outdoor enthusiasts warned yesterday.
The project, announced Thursday by Natural Resources Minister Jacques Brassard, would put 36 small private hydro-electric dams on 24 rivers by 2005. Some of the targeted sites are popular canoeing, kayaking and rafting venues.
17/Apr/2001 
For Texas Now, Water and Not Oil Is Liquid Gold
T. Boone Pickens is proposing to pump water from underneath his Mesa Vista Ranch in Miami, Tex., to the highest bidder.
see nyt map
16/Apr/2001 Florida, Low on Drinking Water, Asks E.P.A. to Waive Safety
Rule
www.nytimes.com/2001/04/13/national/13FLOR.html
5/Apr/2001 ANDERSON WON'T BAN BULK WATER SHIPMENTS
The federal environment minister does not want water exported from
Canada in bulk. However, David Anderson says he will not ban the
practice.
Anderson says banning bulk water exports would send a signal to the world that Ottawa considers water a commodity that can be traded. The minister says Canada, the United States and Mexico have all said they do not consider water a saleable resource.
Anderson says he expects the provinces and territories to live up to an accord most of them signed to prevent bulk water exports.
The government of Newfoundland has recently indicated it's considering bulk exports.
cbc.ca/news/indepth/water/
Wed 3/28/01
NFLD. PREMIER READY TO TAKE ON CANADA OVER WATER EXPORTS
Newfoundland Premier Roger Grimes said Wednesday that he is prepared to
defy Ottawa and the rest of Canada with his plans for bulk fresh water
export.
Mon 3/5/01 Free water isn't used efficiently
By: WILLIAM WATSON
The New York Times reports that in the United States, there is a booming bootleg trade in Canadian toilets. There's also a flourishing second-hand market in used U.S. toilets.
The reason? Canadian toilets and old U.S. toilets are bigger than the 1.6-gallon models U.S. manufacturers are now restricted to selling. They can still produce the 3.5-gallon honkers of yore, but they have to export them. Which they are doing, in large numbers. But, also in large numbers, the hot toilets are finding their way back into the States.
Why the U.S. fetish for full-sized flushers? Three reasons, at least: Americans have a cultural predilection for the biggest and the best. They don't like being told what they can and cannot do. And, until recent design changes reportedly solved the problem, the small-capacity toilets have been more prone to block - always an infringement on the pursuit of happiness.
So why does the U.S. federal government insist on small toilets? Partly because the bureaucracy just loves making regulations. But mainly because it's worried about water use. With smaller toilets, it reckons the country can save 500 million gallons of water a day - water that costs money to purify and could probably be put to better uses.
Faced with such an argument, a normal person probably thinks "Ah, well, that makes sense." An economist, by contrast, sees a case of "second-best gone mad."
Sun 2/25/01 cbc WORLD TITLE FOR QUEBEC WATER
A Quebec town has won the title of having the world's best tap water.
Samples from nine countries were tasted by a panel of experts at the
International Water Tasting competition in Berkeley Springs, West
Virginia.
The winning entry was tap water from the northwestern Quebec town of Amos. It was judged the best on the basis of clarity, odour, and taste.
24/Nov/2000 FROM A GULLY TO A TRICKLE, WATER MAY FLOW ON MARS
New pictures from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, MGS, have scientists
talking excitedly about – water. But that's because the water may be
on the surface of the Red Planet. The images, taken from space show new
evidence of gullies on the surface of Mars that may have been carved by
the passage of streams.
Please see Wed1010 with Dr. Judith Paterson July 11th 2001
Sunday, April 09, 2000 A drop in water levels in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River is causing a
rise in anxiety among shippers and the people
who live along the shore.
Thursday, March 23, 2000 Conference wants to put a price on water
Water Works" canadiangeographic.ca
INDEPTH:
Canada Water CBC indepth
Thursday, March 16, 2000 Shipping even a fraction of that water to the
southwestern United States or anywhere else would have major
environmental consequences, some of them unforeseen.
So yesterday's recommendation by the International Joint Commission
that there be a virtual prohibition on bulk water exports from the Great
Lakes should be welcomed, even if it may disappoint the schemers and
dreamers who for years have looked longingly at Canada's bountiful
lakes and rivers, and have come up with various proposals to divert
rivers southward or to send tankers full of water to foreign ports.
IJC's finding will make it harder for opponents of the ban to argue that
Canadians are just being selfish. And it comes just as Ottawa is seeking
to persuade some recalcitrant provinces to agree to a national scheme
to prevent this country's fresh water from becoming a traded
commodity. If a province were to start treating bulk water as a
commercial good, then, under NAFTA, Canada could find itself obliged to
allow bulk water exports.
Another report issued this week - this one by the World Commission on
Water - also rejects the idea of international trade in fresh water,
saying that it will not solve the problem and makes no economic sense.
Instead, the commission says water prices should reflect the price of
the resource, to give people the incentive to take conservation
seriously.
Tuesday 28 December 1999 Water, water everywhere? ...More than a billion people, one-sixth of humanity, do not have safe drinking water and almost 3 billion have no access to sanitation
services. A child dies every eight seconds from drinking contaminated
water. Rivers are diverted to irrigate crops and sustain cities that have
no business being where man has placed them - paradoxically poisoning
the soil beyond reclaim in the process. Underground aquifers are being
drained empty, in the Third World and in the wealthy American West
alike. (saved)
Wednesday, December 15, 1999
Scientists risk contaminating one of Earth's last pure lakes ...Researchers have poured about 60 tons of drilling fuel into holes drilled deep into the ice near the Russian Vostok
Wednesday 8 December 1999 Time to tap suburbs: official Montreal wants to charge more for water it sells to neighbours and expand clientele UYEN VU Upgrading the
city's two water-filtration plants would cost another $45 million over 10
years. These costs should be shouldered equally by the federal,
provincial and municipal governments,...the city's present rates - 14.6 cents and
22 cents per cubic metre - are far lower than water prices in places like
Rosemere (44 cents per cubic metre) or Sherbrooke (30 cents per cubic metre).
The price of water, which varies across the province, isn't set by
municipalities but by the Quebec Municipal Commission. The prices are
based on the costs of production and distribution.
$600 million a year - or $9 billion over 15 years - is
urgently needed for the water-distribution networks. Ottawa and
Quebec should fork out the bulk of that amount, with the municipalities
chipping in $100 million a year,
Must see "Water, water everywhere" by JOHN BARBER Saturday, July 10, 1999 from the Globe
From Wednesday-Night May 17, 2000 Water supply in becoming critical in an increasing number of countries, (the example cited was that of 17 countries of the Middle East and Maghreb where the number of nations facing critical droughts is rising exponentially and where it is predicted that within 15 years ALL will face serious droughts). Canada is sitting on a gold mine and with its water resources could be a major force for peace, however, there is much to be explored and debated here with a view to eventually making the exportation of fresh water economically feasible. Canada will have to weigh the choice of parting with some of its fresh water or facing the threat of war with the have-not nations. Alternatively, what are the prospects for selling water which now gushes into the St. Lawrence, quickly blending with salt water and, currently, serving no useful purpose?
Wednesday Night #911 Water
August 11, 1999
THE INVITATION
AUGUST 18th
After last Wednesday's eclipsed agenda and videos - it was a good experience - we are slightly more organized this week. We also note that the August 15 deadline has passed, meaning that some of the migratory members of Wednesday Night are back in the city. We look forward to having a certain number of night owls with us, hawks and doves are also welcome. Perhaps some will have advice on nest-eggs?
NB Wednesday, August 18, 1999 The International Joint Commission will not ban the sale of Great Lakes water ... just restrict .. a bit ..."a virtual moratorium"?? The IJC which normally moves at the speed of an ice flow tool only a few months to produce its report. see obits. page in the Gazette, next to "U.S. drought" ... Look out Maude rides again!
Globe & Mail Aug. 18
"Brazil surprises with GDP growth - Performance proves wrong dire
predictions made after January's big currency devaluation", on the
International Business page.
Immigration error reduces number of migrants to be deported DIRK MEISSNER
VICTORIA (CP) - An embarrassing error by senior Immigration Department officials
has given at least 20 Chinese migrants a second chance at remaining in Canada as refugees.
The mistake admitted Tuesday by Immigration officials reduces the number of illegal
Chinese migrants facing certain deportation from Canada to 58 from 78.
Several senior immigration officials failed to notice that 20 migrants indicated in their initial interviews with immigration examination officers that they wanted to enter
Canada, said Immigration spokesman Jim Redmond.
Study backs Ottawa: Anderson sets a fall deadline to reach a deal with the provinces
Ian Jack
Financial Post
Sleeping Giant Island in Lake Superior. A newly released report by the International Joint Commission says only 1% of the Great Lakes is naturally renewable -- any more is "mining."
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Alberta and Quebec are expected to be among the bigger stumbling blocks to an accord, Quebec because it resists being part of most federal-provincial agreements and Alberta because it has been intent on retaining the right to divert water within its boundaries for agricultural or other purposes.
Newfoundland is the only province with an active application to export water before it. But Newfoundland agreed to hold off on granting a licence last winter while negotiations continue for a national policy. "Since then, we've held some discussions with the federal government and they're ongoing," said Sean Kelly, spokesman for Oliver Langdon, the province's environment minister. [Newfoundland is not the Great Lakes .. a lot of thir water falls into the salty sea! Let's let them sell it DTN]
Sandra Postel (Director of the Global Water Policy Project and a senior fellow at the Worldwatch Institute. She is the author of Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? ) - "Water & Security: Challenges for the 21st Century"
Water. It is essential to all plant and animal life. In developed countries, turn on a faucet and water flows with seemingly unending abundance. For those who have adequate access, water is so basic it's easy to forget its importance. As world populations increase, tensions between nations which share rivers is growing. How to equitably share such a vital yet finite resource? Sandra Postel predicts that the increasing competition for water will prove a major influence in global affairs in this century. November 15, 1999. [national broadcast]
911
THE SALON
Dr. Dieter Soyez |
As the guests assembled, it was obvious that university sessions are about to resume. After prolonged summer absences, a familiar - and welcome - complement of professors took their places around the table. In addition, Judith Patterson introduced Dr. Dieter Soyez …, professor of Geography at Cologne University. He has wide experience in working in aboriginal and environmental issues.
As the video machines were again functioning, the evening began with a brief tour of the web site during which David pointed out the unusual cat on the "soon-come Wednesday Night" page; this is one of Robert Ackerman's designs and leads to his home page.
COUCHICHING
Margaret Lefebvre gave her own version of this year's "Couch" (see last week for Alex Weinstein's take). Although the topic, Science, Ethics & Human Destiny, was not one for which it was easy to find sponsorship, the Board felt strongly that it should be addressed, e.g. Where do we come from? What issues affect our destiny?
Margaret gave a brief summary of some of the ideas that she found particularly intriguing, including:
- Lifeforms emerged from under the earth's crust, through the oceans, thus leading scientists to believe that our origins could have been on Mars and have traveled to Earth with asteroids
- · Extinction of species comes from specialization; as the human brain is what distinguishes us from other lifeforms we may conclude that the seeds of our extinction reside in the human brain.
- Only the human race has the power to interfere with its own evolution.
- Earth will end in 50 billion years. There will be no Big Bang as there is no sound in a vacuum.
- The conflicting forces of Globalization and Environmentalism will bring about the next great social revolution.
FROM HOWARD GALGANOV TO HITLER
A very brief mention was made of Howard Galganov's recent and unsuccessful ad calling on American tourists to boycott Québec stores that do not have English on their signs.
"Galganov's downhill trek" 18 August 1999 . Galganov and his organization, as well as Brent Tyler who took his case to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, frequently overstep the boundaries of common sense by suggesting thoroughly insulting - and false - parallels with totalitarian régimes, notably Nazi Germany. No supporters around the Wednesday Night table. Margo please note Galganov is not a lawyer!
Julius Grey mentioned Ron Rosenbaum's book on Hitler Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil which presents him as a thoroughly dull and inconsequential individual in his private life. Do we overestimate him as an intellectual influence? Why was Mein Kampf considered to be a seminal work? Probably because so few people read it (judging by the straw poll of Wednesday Night). How could the previous generation have been so taken in? Because Hitler was a brilliant communicator, playing on the population's prejudices, fears and ambitions.
Drivers targets of drug tests PAUL CHERRY
Quebec's automobile-insurance board is conducting an unprecedented study to see whether there's a link between drug use and motor-vehicle accidents. civil-liberties lawyer Julius Grey said yesterday the methods used to conduct the survey appear to be illegal. Especially taking urine tests on Sherbrooke St.
Lawyer Grey said police are not empowered to stop people at random.
"The idea of simply stopping people and asking them to pull over and do
this is as bad as if the police were to stop people and ask, 'Would you
like to contribute to a police charity?'
Dr. Dieter Soyez, Judith Paterson & Diana Thébaud |
AMALGAMATION
The Chair introduced the topic, saying: We're all behind you, Mayor Trent, we'd like to know why.
Municipal Affairs Minister, Louise Hare is due to table the government's answer to the Bédard Commission report on municipal reform next week - or next month, according to whose report one reads. The Métropole and the Capitale will be treated differently from any other towns or cities.
According to the PQ, "Amalgamation is a global trend", however in reality, Canada is joining the trend just as Europe and the United States are seeking to reverse it. Europe is decentralizing and there is a secessionist trend in the U.S. Meanwhile, in Canada we have Hamilton/Wentworth, Ottawa/Carleton, Dartmouth/Halifax and, of course Toronto.
It appears that the Québec government will not support Mayor Bourque's proposal, but would look favorably on a more gradual approach, étapisme.
(Editor's note: The Gazette of August 23rd "Mayor Minister and Merger" quotes Mme Harel as saying that Montreal has grown too big to be administered within the island alone.)
Under the White Paper proposals, Québec would name the Chairman of the new regional government; s/he would not be elected.
We cannot "sweep problems under an ever-expanding rug". It is not true that things will be better for Montreal under the new formula - things will be worse for all of us, including Montreal citizens, and this must be clearly conveyed to them.
- The quality of services will NOT improve;
- Economies of scale do NOT apply (private sector economics cannot be applied to the public sector.
Our mayor is not standing idly by. Westmount has commissioned a study on municipal amalgamation which should give the suburban mayors a cogent, well documented argument, recognizing that above all we must seek fiscal not structural solutions to the problems facing Montreal.
Susan Eyton-Jones |
CONRAD BLACK
There is little or no sympathy in this milieu for Conrad's continuing quest for a title, nor for his latest attempt to sue Prime Minister Chrétien for his role in blocking it. One guest pointed out that there are towns in Germany that believe that their citizens should receive no honors for simply doing their civic duty. This is not the same issue as military honors for valour.
WATER
THE IJC REPORT - A SIX-MONTH MORATORIUM
In the wake of today's IJC interim report (the final is due in February 2000) and recommendation that Canada and the U.S. should ban new bulk removals and sales of water from the Great Lakes for the next six months, this topic could not be overlooked.
(Editor's Note: TIME, August 23 has a thoughtful piece "In a Lather over Water - An extended ban on Great Lakes exports will only highlight a big problem".)
Lloyd Axworthy has stated that the report is exactly what Canada wants, giving the federal government time to consult with the provinces before tabling amendments to the International Boundary Waters Act banning export of bulk water permanently.
Tony Deutsch, Tony Masi & Julius Grey |
The Great Lakes certainly present a tempting source, with such vast volumes of water, however the volume of water in the Great Lakes is variable (but according to the IJC, there is never a surplus) and we still do not know enough about the hydrology of the Lakes.
Canada does have 1/5th of the world's water resources, but only a relatively small percentage is near the U.S. border and that is where the majority of the Canadian users are.
Additionally, much is still not known about the hydrology of the Great Lakes. For example, the residence time of water in the Lakes is unknown (this is the term for the average amount of time that each particle of water spends in the Lakes. Some particles flow in and out in the same year. Other molecules of water may have been at the bottom of the Lakes for millennia). The Great Lakes were formed after the last Ice Ages (ending about 10,000 years ago in this neck of the woods), when melt water from the glaciers filled in gouges in the earth's surface. Much of the water in the Great Lakes is therefore what hydrologists call "fossil water". That is, the Lakes did not fill up gradually with rain, etc., but on a one-time basis when the continental ice sheets melted.
Now, each year, a little water runs in and a little water runs out down the St. Lawrence (about 1% of the total Lake volume). The IJC document points out that water levels in several of the lakes have dropped 55.9 cm in the past year and the average levels of all five lakes could be lowered by as much as 91 cm by 2035.
a Quote: "..take out more than 1%, one percent, and you are mining the stuff"
Hydrogeologists and civil engineers fear that if additional water is taken out of the Lakes - beyond the annual natural flow - the Lakes will be in a deficit situation. Essentially, we will be mining the fossil water from the Lakes - where would the extra water come from to replenish what is taken out for bulk export?
An example of what can happen to a watershed basin when the basic hyrdology is tinkered with is the Aral Sea, a huge ecological disaster in the former Soviet Union..
Global warming must be factored in; sea levels are rising and the impact of climate change increases the farther north one goes. Global warming is bringing more extremes, flash floods, droughts, drastic contrasts between the east and west coasts of North America. This may also affect the hydrology of the Great Lakes.
The diversion of the Columbia River was rejected because of the ecological problems that it would have created and the amount of water that would have been lost to evaporation through transportation to the American Southwest in a canal running in a trench between mountain ranges.
The U.S. had vast reserves of groundwater that have been deplenished over the last 100 years.
The situation on the West Coast of the U.S. is much worse than other parts of that country.
George Cavadias reiterates that water is NOT a commodity. Axworthy has taken the same position.
For some it is impossible to envisage the point at which Canada would sell water - not even if the price were right. It is as inconceivable as selling the Niagara Peninsula.
Julius Grey reminds us that free enterprise and free trade are not part of the Charter. The sale of water is a political and not a NAFTA issue. The Canadian chairman of the IJC is quoted as saying that international trade laws " do not appear to prevent Canada and the United States from protecting their water resources and preserving the integrity of the Great Lakes' basin ecosystem".
In the opinions expressed around the table, as navigable waters belong to the Crown, the federal and provincial governments have jurisdiction. Riparian rights. One may not deprive a neighbor of usage. Clear regulatory power of the feds.
However, in a study completed earlier this year for the Council of Great Lakes Governors, Canadian and American legal experts agreed that governments don't have the ability to dictate water use by fiat.
Are developed nations exerting neo-colonial pressures on the Third World to conform to sustainable development practices (prohibition of burning off of Brazilian rain forest is a case in point)?
It was noted that throughout this discussion, the Chair had exercised unusual restraint concerning the Council of Canadians' demand that the NAFTA be reopened to establish explicit Canadian sovereignty over water!
May 18, 2000 "Don't shut the tap on private-sector water" The Globe and Mail
CONCLUSION
As the evening closed with the statement that in a global economy, business will go where there is the least environmental regulation, we came full circle to the Couchiching speaker's prediction that the clash of environmental and globalization forces will bring about the next great social revolution.
Quote of the evening: Are you the man we were talking about in your absence? DTN
Diana T. Nicholson Editor
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From notes by Diana Thébaud Nicholson
Invaluable editing assistance of the Water section
from Dr. Judith Patterson
Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson
HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE in our medical file.
August 11/99 # 910 Marie Mandeville ALCAN and ALCOA Jean-Pierre Bertrand & Chil Heward, Jean-Pierre Bertrand , Robert Ackerman, Canadian diamond cutters, COUCHICHING
# 909 India August 4, 1999 SIMON POTTER, Robin Wohnsigl VP AC, Steve Poloz & Tulsi Nowlakha Mirchandaney Sr.vp Blue Dart Express, Dr. Mihailo Crnobrnja, Warren Allmand, Ashok Chandwani & George Cavadias, Fr. David Oliver, Une ile Une Ville? Quote: "I will not come here again until David has been to India!" ...Nimi Potter
Inflation up in July Wednesday, August 18, 1999
OTTAWA (CP) - Consumers paid 1.8 per cent more for goods and services in July than
they did one year earlier, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. That's up from an
annual inflation rate of 1.6 per cent in June, the agency said. Annual inflation in
Canada in the last four months is now close to the averages for all of 1996 and 1997.
Statistics Canada said more than a third of the July inflation rate can be attributed to
higher transportation costs in everything from gasoline at the pump to air fares.
Tuesday 17 August 1999 Final adieu to Mr. Mayor 5,000 gather for Drapeau funeral ...- Jean Drapeau, on announcing his retirement after 29 years as mayor of Montreal, June 27, 1986.
Wed 7/18/01 7:00 PM PMO REJECTS BULK WATER EXPORTS IN WAKE OF REPORT
The Prime Minister's Office has reconfirmed that Canadian water will not
be sold in bulk to the U.S.
cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/07/18/water_010718
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