2022-05-25 Selected postings, the Privatization of Water, Water for Profit (Merville)

Selected postings, the Privatization of Water, Water for Profit  (Merville)

We people are accomplished at creating disasters for ourselves.  

If you glimpse the lay of the land,  you will understand: 

We have to stop the export of water from BC.   It can only end in disaster.   

 A glimpse: 

1.    2022-06-01 Canadian Water Summit June 1-3 . . .  (Chinese investors)  willing to spend “at least $20 million” to buy wells in BC     https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=27189 
2.   2017-04-30    Agriculture Canada has been actively promoting water exports to China for years;https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=19010
3. 3.     The majority of the water exported by Canada goes to the U.S.  2021-08-30   Forty Million People Rely on the Colorado River, But It’s Drying Up Fast. What Happens Next?(https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=25606 )  
4. 4.  New and instructive.  Suddenly one day, they are shocked and in deep crisis:   2022-06-01 ‘Consequences will be dire’: Chile’s water crisis is reaching breaking point;  (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=27147)  
5.  The Fanny Bay story.  California drought, 1991.   Instructive.    1991-03-22   Raining on Water Importer’s Parade: Drought: The latest series of storms may have doused chances that a Santa Barbara firm will get a large contract to import water from Fanny Bay, Vancouver Island, Canada.  L.A. Times.
6.   Continuation of the Fanny Bay story:  1991 to 2019 “War” over Water export from B.C. to California, Court case;  (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23420 )   (lengthy text not included in packages.  Please go to the link)
7.  Government re-structuring in the past 20 years has moved Water into business-oriented ministries.   Just one example.   2006-12-05  Water: now in the hands of Dept Industry and Resources.       (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23619)

Prior to the false idea of “public-private-partnerships” and their corrupting influence, Canada had reasonably good protection for water, and improving.   The International Joint Commission (IJC) with the U.S. looked after cross-border water (e.g. the Great Lakes).  The scientists, the policy work, and the cooperation fostered by the IJC was superb.   The protection of cross-provincial water in Canada built on the IJC strength.

8. 2011-10-01 Cash Flow Buying and selling priceless water.  Comprehensive article by Lynn Martel. (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24014)

Excerpt: 

Water is the crucial stuff of life for every living organism. We’d better know exactly what we’re doing before we start trading it for something as ephemeral as cash.

9.  ***   Remember this.   It’s the explanation behind the emptying of the Aral Sea, the Salton Sea (California), the Colorado River, among other examples:  2019-01-24   Export of Water, for profit. THE ECONOMICS. “You cannot give up something that gives you income”.  In a system that measures success by expansion – – every year “more”, always “growth” in sales (and in Government revenue).  When the product is water?  (Submission to Strathcona District Board);       (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23513)

Do people know when, or how, to stop an “economic” activity that is doing great harm?

10. They thought they had stopped it.  It’s back.   2018-10-29 Water: pushing to block for-profit water extraction and bottling, right across Vancouver Island (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=22652)
11. People fighting to protect water should understand that they are fighting the Federal Government working in support of the Corporate interest in controlling water.     2018-12-15 Submission, International Trade, re Export of Water.   Includes details of Agri-Food Canada’s financial support for businesses that expand export of water from Canada.    (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23292)
12. 12.   2019-02-06 Taking of water for profit / export, Locations in Canada;   (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23744 )
13.   Know that when the time comes for blame – – it is us “people”  who are to blame because we didn’t “conserve” enough water.  But NO:  it is always industrial use.    2022-05-25   Opportunity to make the point: citizens are BLAMED for water shortages.  Industrial use, by far the largest part of the problem, goes unmentioned.      (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=27125)
14.  Initiatives in one province are frequently part of a national roll-out.  Maybe 15 years ago now, Saskatchewan was focused  on the “mapping” of underground water, and simultaneously on “equity interests in water“.   You know B.C. Groundwater is mapped – – there wouldn’t be data for research without it.   On the other hand, if the mapping is driven by the creation of “equity interests in water” (Merville) – which it is,  we are in very serious trouble.     2015-11-16 Most groundwater is effectively a non-renewable resource, study finds, CBC News      (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24848)
15.   Simultaneously with #11,  dedication to the corporatization of water means there are initiatives that the power brokers DO NOT want to pursue.  Officials then spout rhetoric versus important realities that need to be known.   2019-02-01   “… with respect to the Water Sustainability Act it is unclear who establishes and monitors “Critical Environmental Flows” in BC waters. Can you clarify this for us? Can you also identify which streams and rivers have had critical environmental flows established?” (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23781)
16.  Water is not a commodity but the journalist makes a point.    2018-05-15  Water is a precious commodity, but B.C. is just giving it away, Globe&Mail, Gary Mason;      (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24192)
17. 2014-05-22 Island glaciers will disappear in 25 years, scientist says, Times Colonist;  (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23277)
18. Global, corporate appropriations of water.  We are not alone.  A win here in Merville is a win in support of other places.    2018-2019 STOP water bottlers from taking up to 9 million litres per year from aquifer. New Zealand. Chinese-owned Cloud Ocean Water;(https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23770)
19. Understand how “first in time, first in rights”  affects your access to water.    2019-01-28 Taking of water for export. Director Brenda Leigh re “First in Time, First in Rights” policy;      (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23526)
20. The Government will not do . . .      2019-03- Mount Polley mine disaster escapes BC law because of government policy on private prosecutions;     (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24171)
21.  Corruption?   2019-03-13 Canada’s SNC-Lavalin Affair: The Site C Dam Project and Bulk Water Export, Global Research, Joyce Nelson;https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24206)
22. 2019-03-14    B.C. Supreme Court Judge says: Water is a commercial commodity;   (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24177)      
23.   2005-11-11    Americans will be AGGRESSIVELY after our Water,  Peter Lougheed, Former Premier of Alberta. In the Globe & Mail;   Peter Lougheed, Premier of Albterta from 1971 to 1985, was a statesman and a reformer.  He established the Heritage Fund for Albertans which later premiers squandered.
24.    California never learns because influential people believe that the water will be imported from Canada.    2021-08-17   THE WELL FIXER’S WARNING   The lesson that California never learns; (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=25468)
25.  This process was described by a significant Liberal in the effort to move water south from Canada, for corporate profit-taking as   “moving the economy into institutions”  (beyond reach of the public interest.  Beyond “freedom of information”  laws that apply to Governments and to public institutions).     2021-02-14 The New Canada Water Agency;     (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=25298)
26.  It might be Liberals today;  it was Conservatives in the beginning.  The common factor: Quislings working with Business people.   2019-08 Water export, History: The determination to make water accessible for money-making goes back to the first trade deal with the U.S.;     (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24753)
27. TimberWest was eventually sold to two funds . . .  2019-01-30  Applies also to Water. The Timber West trial,  Role of Pension funds in corruption. And of contributions to political parties. (The Tyee)      (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23719)
28.   2021-12-22     130+ Groups to Wall Street:  Water Is Not a Commodity;       https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=26330
29.   A striking description of “the takeover of Government, a coup d’etat”      2019-09-03   Swiss Development Aid, Nestlé and Water Privatization, with thanks to Defend Democracy   (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24806)
30.   You had better be protecting your water;  others can’t do it for you.   2019-08-06 The Liberal Government Says It is Looking to Privatize Municipal Water Systems Across Canada        (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24770)
31.    We tried to help the people in Canal Flats by contacting local organizations and sending information.  I don’t know the ending of  that story.    2019-08-22 Water bottling facility proposed in Canal Flats, BC. Columbia Valley       (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=24738)
32. 2006-04-27 Water. Wrap-up statement, Proposed Meridian Dam. Battle won. (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=15468)
33.  The Rosenberg Institute is from the U.S.  They were hired to analyze and report.  Judging from today, I think we’ve regressed! 2007-03-14 Water: valuable & important document, Rosenberg Report;  https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23633

Excerpt:   Below might explain why today,  Agri-Food Canada is still running a program to further expand the export of water (on-going, at the very least since 1995).

The National Water Supply Expansion Program – – sounds a trifle hubristic!   Like, we’re running out of water.  We’ll just expand the supply.  (And sell it in all those parts of the world where they’re running out!)

Under the category Peace or Violence, see Resource depletion in the U.S.  

34.  This Cowichan Valley report is much the same as stories there.  The Difference?  we are at a much earlier stage.  Can we not learn from the mistakes and stupidities of others?  Must we create our own disasters?  Please have conversations and share information!  – –    2022-06-06 Lack of reliable water sources stalling housing developments in Cowichan Valley, ChekNews.    (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=27205)    More, More, More of the same “development”  only takes us deeper into the quagmire.

MERVILLE:    

35.  2018-11-13 The growing pains of updating BC’s water law, Watershed Sentinel;   the new Water Sustainability Act (Feb 2016);       https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=23445

Watershed Sentinel examines how well the new Water Sustainability Act (Feb 2016) is working in the context of a water bottling controversy in Merville

EXCERPT (full text not included in this package of Selected Postings.  Too long.  Please view on-line.):

. . .  Lui said it’s pretty simple why such a dated principle (first in time, first in right) made it into the new legislation. “I think the government was really not wanting to change the system in such a way that could threaten existing industries, like bottled water or fracking. But that’s really what needs to be done. We need to think about where water is being used and how that’s going to be impacting people and communities in the future.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  =  =

IN CONCLUSION: 

The U.S. has known for a long time: their water situation is one-way going down.   

Canadians have to be able to see where the path we trod leads.   The only people who will stop the privatization and export of water is us.   Governments will not.  

There is excellent local leadership and participation in Merville.  Please share their story widely (the link below).  Just do what you can.  Thank-you!

From the Introduction:

2022-04-29 “I have always wondered why (Govt officials) have worked SO hard, and have bent over backwards to accommodate this licensee. ”  Taking of Water Merville  (Campbell River – Strathcona – Comox Valley);     (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=27152)