Harris and Barlow in Edmonton at ‘The Fight for Water: Challenging Water Markets in Alberta’ public forum, October 2010.
The Edmonton Journal reports, “The provincial government (of Alberta) must pass water laws that put people and rivers first, or else risk water shortages, huge public costs and environmental degradation, a new report (by Water Matters) says.” The article highlights, “The freedom to transfer water rights was first introduced in 1999, when the province passed the Water Act. The market didn’t heat up until 2006, after the province stopped granting new licences for the South Saskatchewan River Basin (in southern Alberta), and people who needed water were forced to start buying water rights from existing licence holders. Since 2003, roughly 80 water licences have been transferred. Public consultations on the future of water management in Alberta are slated to begin in the fall of 2012 or the spring of 2013.”
In December 2011, Edmonton-based Council of Canadians organizer Scott Harris wrote, “The University of Alberta-based Parkland Institute has released a report (’Alternative Water Futures in Alberta’ by Jeremy Schmidt) which says that the expansion of water markets to all of Alberta as part of the provincial government’s review of the provincial water allocation system would have adverse effects on the environment, access to water by a range of users in the province, and First Nations’ communities. Drawing from the experiences of other jurisdictions with water markets, including Australia, Chile and Spain, the report suggests two possible alternative systems instead of markets: approaching water as a public trust or viewing it as a common-pool resource. Either of these approaches, the report argues, would provide Alberta with greater flexibility and options in the future as it grapples with future water challenges.” The report was funded in part by the Council of Canadians and was promoted with a 5-city tour in late-2011 organized by the Our Water Is Not For Sale network, of which the Council of Canadians is a founding member.
In 2008, a study by University of Toronto professors Joseph Cumming and Robert Froehlich argued that US-owned water-intensive oil companies operating in the tar sands could sue Canada under NAFTA Chapter 11 for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for lost profits should restrictions be placed on their water use. At that time, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow stated, “We have a scenario where Alberta is destroying its water heritage to produce oil that profits American companies and goes to the U.S.”
Additional Council of Canadians commentary on water markets in Alberta can be read at http://canadians.org/watermarkets.
