ACTION ALERT: Don't let CETA privatize our water

December 16, 2010

This morning, the Council of Canadians and Canadian Union of Public Employees released a report on how the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will threaten public water systems in Canada. It’s called “Public Water for Sale: How Canada Will Privatize Our Public Water Systems.”

According to the report, if CETA is negotiated on the terms sought by the EU, it would be the first time that Canada has allowed our drinking water to be fully covered under a trade treaty and the first instance that a trade agreement has covered municipal procurement of water services. The services and procurement commitments proposed in CETA would be protected by strong investor rights.

The effect of these rights as they relate to the services and procurement provisions would be to lock in existing private water contracts, restrict how local governments regulate the activity and investment of private water companies, and to encourage and facilitate the privatization of Canada’s largely public water delivery and treatment systems. Canadian provinces and territories cannot be allowed to sacrifice public water just so that EU firms Veolia Environment and Suez can increase their profits.

 We need to get this report into the hands of municipal, provincial, territorial and federal decision makers now before Canada sells out its public water systems to EU private water companies.

THERE IS ALREADY PRESSURE TO PRIVATIZE

There is an infrastructure crisis in Canada. Municipalities and First Nations communities are under pressure to upgrade aging water facilities, and to meet new environmental and safety legislation without access to proper financial resources. At least $31 billion is needed to cover the cost of the facility upgrades, and the estimated cost of the new sanitation regulations is $20 billion.

Not surprisingly, the private water industry sees leaky pipes as an opportunity to increase its role in water delivery and treatment. Existing government programs, including the Building Canada Plan, and funding initiatives under Public Private Partnershps Canada (PPP Canada Inc.), encourage privatization as a condition of receiving federal money for municipal infrastructure projects.

PRIVATE WATER DOESN’T WORK

Experiments with privatization have failed all over the world, and a growing trend in Europe, the United States and Latin America is to remunicipalize private and public-private partnerships (P3) water projects. Experiments with private water have been a disaster. Accountability disappears, water rates go up, workers are laid off, and service levels decline.

Once public revenues are transformed into private profits, remunicipalization will become next to impossible under the services, investment and procurement rules set out in CETA. There are no economic or social gains from agreeing to the EU requests as they relate to water services. There are only unnecessary and costly risks to Canada's municipalities and First Nations.

TAKE ACTION

Provincial, territorial and municipal governments must take immediate action to protect Canada's public water systems from decay and privatization. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, solving the infrastructure crisis in municipalities and First Nations communities is a matter of political will, not adequate funding.

We need to get this new report on CETA and water privatization into the hands of as many local, provincial and federal decision makers as possible. Click here for to find your MP’s contact information. Click here to find your provincial legislator’s contact info. You can find your local councillor’s email easily by going to your municipality’s website.

WHAT TO STRESS IN YOUR LETTER

Send your local decision makers a link to the report on the Council of Canadians website. Use information from the report or this Action Alert. In particular, stress that:

• Government procurement and trade-in-services commitments related to water systems must be rejected in CETA. It is pointless to make commitments in water services unless your intention is to privatize public water delivery or treatment systems.

• Municipal governments and their water utilities must be excluded entirely from CETA. There are no gains, only large risks, more pressures to privatize water systems, and unnecessary limitations open municipal autonomy.

• Provincial and territorial governments must work with municipalities and the federal government to develop a public funding plan to upgrade Canada's neglected water infrastructure. The money is available -- it is a matter or prioritizing public funds for public water infrastructure.

• Finally, all levels of government must be transparent with Canadians about the effect that CETA will have on the provision of public services and development of social policy. They should seek informed consent from Canadians on what provisions a trade agreement with the EU should and should not include.

NEXT ROUND OF CETA TALKS

Though holidays are coming up if not already here for many of our local politicians, we need to get this report to them as soon as possible. The provinces and territories are only weeks away from sending their offers to the EU negotiators. These offers will contain commitments on water services unless we can stop it. The next round of CETA negotiations (number six) will happen in Brussels, Belgium this January 17 to 21. Let’s show our politicians Canadians will not allow them to negotiate away public water behind closed doors!