The Kamloops chapter will be at at their local city council meeting tomorrow afternoon asking municipal councillors to pass a resolution making Kamloops a blue community.
The Blue Communities Project is a joint initiative between the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Council of Canadians and Quebec-based group Eau Secours.To be recognized as a blue community, a municipality must agree to three basic provisions: Recognize water as a basic human right, promote publicly owned and operated water infrastructure, and ban the sale of bottled water at publicly owned facilities and public events.
Within the past year, five Canadian municipalities have passed resolutions to become a ‘blue community’:
– Burnaby, British Columbia (March 22, 2011)
– Victoria, British Columbia (June 24, 2011) (despite last-minute opposition from Nestle)
– Tiny Township, Ontario (September 12, 2011)
– Ajax, Ontario (December 12, 2011)
– North Vancouver, British Columbia (February 7, 2012),
Additionally, two more communities have passed municipal resolutions recognizing water as a human right:
– Port Alberni, British Columbia (September 8, 2011)
– Kingston, Ontario (September 21, 2011)
Yesterday, at the invitation of the Council of Canadians, the deputy mayor of Paris Anne Le Strat spoke at a government-civil society meeting outside the World Water Forum in Marseille, France. For years, the water city of Paris was operated by two private water corporations, Veolia and Suez. In 2009, Paris created a new public water system and brought water services back into public hands. Council of Canadians water campaigner Meera Karunananthan interviewed Ms. Le Strat yesterday afternoon on why Canadian communities must defend water as a human right and public service. Watch for that video soon!
On March 23, Council of Canadians staff will be in Ajax to present that city’s mayor with a blue community certificate.
To find out how to make your community a blue community, go to http://canadians.org/bluecommunities.
Good luck to the Kamloops chapter!
