Letter to the Editor re: Bulk Water Exports

Here's the text of a letter to the editor I wrote to the Sudbury Star in response to their recent editorial on bulk water exports.

A rational conversation about our water security, as well as other environmental issues, is certainly a welcome goal that all Canadians should strive towards.

One source of rational (and informed) thought on the issue has consistently come from the venerable Council of Canadians, led by Maude Barlow, the Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly.

Barlow has long argued that by allowing even limited bulk water exports to the United States, companies from outside our borders will gain the right to export our water without restrictions due to the terms of NAFTA. It should be noted that this isn’t the opinion of an irrational person or an alarmist, but of an intelligent and esteemed expert on the matter.

Indeed, we can have a rational conversation, but we don’t always live in a rational world. And as is all too often happening in this day and age, the will of the majority of Canadians can often be undone by ill-conceived government policies like NAFTA.

Perhaps the most irrational move of all would be if Canadians decided to pursue a water policy against our own interests based on the fear that the United States might someday—hypothetically—try to (maybe) take our water by force, as Gwynne Dyer is suggesting.

That is no way to govern Canada.

Also, the editorial claimed that Canada has one quarter of the world’s freshwater supply. Even if we accept that number to be correct, if we’re to talk about exporting our water to the U.S. the emphasis needs to be placed on how much of our freshwater is renewable.

The Council of Canadians reports that Canada has only 6.5 percent of the world’s renewable water resources and that only one percent of the water in the Great Lakes is renewable. I have found no reason to refute that number, so I disagree with Dyer’s premise that Canada has lots of water to spare.

Chris Kivinen-Newman
Sudbury