A promotional e-mail notes, “The Global Water Leadership Summit will convene an international leadership event featuring the world’s top water innovators, funders, entrepreneurs and researchers.”
“Hosted by the Ontario government and chaired by David Henderson, Managing Director of water venture capital company XPV Capital, the Summit will also feature Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, ministers Glen Murray, Sandra Pupatello and John Wilkinson.”
“One of the goals of the Summit is to address the promise of water technology as a new engine for economic growth.”
This past March we noted the conference included the participation of United Water/ Suez Environnement North America and Veolia Waters Americas.
The Council of Canadians will be tracking the proceedings and announcements from the summit this week.
We have raised concerns about the McGuinty government’s pursuit of the clean water technology market, referencing Maude Barlow’s analysis in ‘Blue Covenant’.
Barlow writes, “It is to the distinct advantage of the private water industry that the world’s freshwater supplies are being polluted and destroyed. With governments, industries and universities investing so heavily in the burgeoning water cleanup industry, there is less and less incentive at every level to emphasize source protection and conservation.”
She adds, “The World Trade Organization promotes and protects the trade in environmental services, encouraging cross-border trade and investment in private water cleanup companies. Under the national treatment provision of the WTO, governments cannot favour domestic water companies and will have to open up their bidding process to the water technology transnationals that are getting more powerful all the time.”
And Barlow notes that Suez, Veolia, GE, Dow Chemical, BASF and other private corporations are already invested in this technology.
The McGuinty government introduced the Water Opportunities and Water Conservation Act in May 2010 saying it would, “encourage the creation and export of innovative clean water technology, promote water conservation, attract economic development and create jobs (and) pave the way for the growth of Ontario’s water technology sector in the rapidly expanding global market.”
The Act was passed in November 2010.
The provincial budget this past March stated, “The water strategy encourages innovation and commercialization in the water sector. For example: the Innovation Demonstration Fund Water Round, which focuses on the commercialization and demonstration of water technologies and assists water technology companies with the potential to be globally competitive in demonstrating their innovative technologies in Ontario…”
For more on the May 17-18 conference, go to http://h2o.ocediscovery.com/en/default.aspx.
