The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutClinton News Record, 2015-09-16, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, September 16, 2015 Lisp www.clintonnewsrecord.com NowsCl Record PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 53 Albert St. P.O. Box 39 Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519) 482-3443 www.clintonnewsrecord.com 1J POSTMEDIA MARIE DAVID Group Advertising Director - Grey Bruce Huron Division 519376-2250ext514301 or 510364-2001 ext531024 NEIL CLIFFORD Advertising Director neil.clifford@sunmedia.ca LAURA BROADLEY Reporter clinton.reporter@sunmedia.ca DAWN JOHNSTON Sales Representative cli nton.ads@sunmedia.ca TERESA SMITH Front Office clinton.classifieds@sunmedia.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GS1) 2YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) SENIORS 60 WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GS1) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in The event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged but that balance of advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographic error advertising goods or services at a wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Ad- vertising is merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at anytime. The Clinton News -Record is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 53Albert St., Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519) 482-3443 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada y� Member of the Canadian Community cna.. Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association opinion Watershed for water exports? "Canada has probably one of the largest resources of fresh water in the world. Water is going to be — already is — a very valuable commodity and I've always found it odd that Canada is so willing to sell oil and natural gas and ura- nium and coal, which are by their nature finite. But talking about water is off the table, yet water is renewable." — Paul Cellucci, former U.S. ambassador to Canada, 2001-2005 The thought that Canadians might sell fresh water to Ameri- cans begins in, of all places, a small town in Newfoundland. Gerry White was a pilot and entrepreneur who wanted to sell water from Gisborne Lake, fresh and clean and 16 kilometres long. White flew over the crystal clear lake one day in 1996 and devised a plan to skim 500,000 cubic metres and ship it in bulk by ship to overseas customers. He argued this would lower the lake only one inch, replenished naturally in just a jiffy. White argued it would be a godsend to jobs -poor Newfound- land, especially the small com- munity of Grand Le Pierre, once a thriving cod -fishing town. The town's mayor, Edward Fizzard, backed the plan and its bottling plant, but when environmental- ists got wind of it, White's grand plan was scrapped. The argument was that allow- ing the water to be sold in bulk would make Canadian water a "commodity" and thus subject to the terms and conditions of NAFTA, and allow the U.S. to buy it. Fizzard was unhappy. "The water is just running into the Atlantic Ocean, no one is getting one nickel out of it." At the time Jean Chretien was prime minister. His government went along with popular senti- ment and refused an export per- mit. However, by 2011 the then ex -prime minister admitted it was finally time for Canadians to debate whether they should share their water with the rest of the world. "We have to be able to debate any issue. We're selling oil. It's finite. We're selling natural gas. It's finite. Water, it's raining and snowing in Canada every year. Water is something that is not finite," he said. Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Gary Doer predicted in 2014 that fresh water issues between the U.S. and Canada will soon make Keystone XL pipeline ten- sions look silly by comparison. "Five years from now we will be spending a lot of our time diplo- matically dealing with water," he predicted. Many schemes to export water from Canada to the U.S. have been proposed. The Great Recy- cling and Northern Development Canal proposed to divert water from 20 rivers down to Georgian Bay, then south via pipelines to the parched U.S. southwest. The North American Water and Power Alliance Project proposed to divert the Yukon, Liard and Peace rivers in Canada into the Rocky Mountain Trench to create an 800 -km long reservoir that would transfer water into the U.S. During the 1990s, a proposal to export water by ocean-going tankers was pitched to several Canadian provinces. In British Colubmia in 1991, Sun Belt Water of Santa Barbara, Calif., in part- nership with Snowcap Waters of Fanny Bay, B,C„ proposed to ship bulk water to California by marine tanker. In 1999 Nova Group Ltd. asked for a permit from the Ontario government to export 600 million litres of water annually from Lake Superior to Asia. Denied. Canadian governments, both provincial and federal, have repeatedly refused to allow any bulk export of fresh water, but (most curiously) have never really explained the reasons for their refusal. In contrast to other natural resources like oil, water is annually replenishable. Perhaps Maude Barlow has a reason why water shouldn't be exported. Writing as the national chair for the Council of Canadi- ans in the Huffington Post on July 29, Barlow stated the federal gov- ernment is already selling out Canada's water rights. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently signed the Canada -EU Compre- hensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The massive increase in Canadian beef and pork exports that have been negotiated will allow producers to export close to 70,000 tonnes of beef to Europe annually and an even higher amount of pork. Trouble is, since it takes more than 15 million litres of water to produce one tonne of beef, immense amounts of water will be needed. CETA will also give French companies Suez and Veolia, the two biggest private water opera- tions in the world, access to water management in Canada, for profit. Under a recent federal government edict, cash-strapped municipalities can access federal funds only if they adopt a public- private partnership model, and several Canadian cities have recently put their water or waste water service contracts up for pri- vate bids. CETA also says if a government introduces any new environmen- tal, health or safety rules that were not in place when the for- eign corporation made its origi- nal investment, that corporation has the right to compensation. One American energy company is suing Canada for $250 million because Quebec decided to pro- tect its water by placing a morato- rium on fracking. Fracking? Evidently that new enterprise also demands huge amounts of water. So, do we run the risk of losing easy access to fresh water for our own domestic consumption, or do we have unlimited and replen- ishable supplies that could easily be exported to thirsty customers for huge profits? Apparently, nobody really knows. To save the planet from global warming, should we be exporting clean water rather than dirty oil? As this summer of constant heat, western drought and forest fires (yet more water needed) winds down, it might prove expedient to find some answers. Perhaps it's time for an inven- tory of our greatest natural resource, or even a national debate on its use, to ascertain where we really stand on this key issue. Pretty soon, it may be important to know. Michael McCarthy is a regular contributor to Postmedia publications. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The News Record welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include a daytime phone number for verification purposes. Let- ters can be sent care of the Internet at clinton.reporter@sunmedia.ca, sent via fax at 519-482-7341 or through Canada Post care of The Editor, P.O. Box 39, Clinton, ON NOL 1LO. if it's local, it's here clintonnewsrecord.com CLINTON NEWS RECORD — HOURS OF OPERATION MONDAY: 9:00 - 5:00 • TUESDAY: - CLOSED • WEDNESDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • THURSDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • FRIDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • SATURDAY & SUNDAY: - CLOSED ADVERTISING DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 2:00 • PHONE 519-482-3443 • FAX: 519-482-7341 www.clintonnewsrecord.com