|
No alarm bells went off. That's the
most disturbing thing about a Sault Ste. Marie entrepreneur's
plan to export water to Asia.
It didn't occur to the two provincial
bureaucrats in Thunder Bay who granted the permit that there
might be far reaching implications. They treated it as a routine
application to draw water from Lake Superior.
It didn't occur to their boss, Environment
Minister Norm Sterling, to slam on the brakes. Water exports
aren't his responsibility.
It wasn't until the controversy landed
in Ottawa that officials appreciated the seriousness of the
case. Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy pledged to find
a way to block the sale.
In the end, government action wasn't
necessary. John Febbaro, the businessman who triggered the
controversy, offered to surrender his permit if Ottawa, Ontario
and the United States all agreed to ban Great Lakes water
sales.
The three governments are working on
it. Canada asked the U.S. to jointly refer the question of
Great Lakes water exports to the International Joint Commission,
which oversees boundary waters. It will report back in the
fall.
This is not the first time commercial
interests have tried to turn Canadian water into a profit
commodity.
In the early '90s, a similar water diversion
project has halted, at the last moment, in British Columbia.
A local company won a permit to ship water to drought-plagued
California. Soon, dozens of others were lining up for permits.
Worried, the B.C. government banned the export of water in
anything larger than a 20-litre container.
These incidents fit the scenario that
trade critics warned of a decade ago, when Canada and the
United States negotiated their historic free trade agreement.
They feared that private companies would
start selling our fresh water to the world's parched regions;
and once begun, such exports would be impossible to stop.
Federal officials dismissed their concerns.
Canada would never allow water to become a tradeable commodity,
they insisted. There was no need for a specific law banning
bulk water sales.
It is clear they were wrong. All it
took was a couple of bureaucrats with tunnel vision and a
provincial minister who didn't look beyond his own jurisdiction
to prove that we do need reliable safeguards.
Fortunately, this case seems headed
toward a benign conclusion. But there's a lesson here: a worrisome
precedent was set - almost by accident.
We cannot afford to be so careless
with a precious inheritance.
Exporting Our Water Reprinted
with permission of:
From the Toronto Star
Canada: Exploring New Directions
Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999 |