council of canadians - report - blue betrayal

892019 Council of Canadians - Report - Blue Betrayal

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcouncil-of-canadians-report-blue-betrayal 116

BLUE BETRAYALThe Harper governmentrsquos assault on Canadarsquos freshwater

By Maude Barlow



BLUE BETRAYAL The Harper governmentrsquos assault on Canadarsquos freshwater is published under the Crea ve Commons licenceA ribu on-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 40

About the Author

Maude Barlow is the Na onal Chairperson of the Council of Canadiansand chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch She isa board member of the San Franciscondashbased Interna onal Forum on Glo-baliza on and a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council

Maude is the recipient of twelve honorary doctorates as well as manyawards including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the ldquoAlter-na ve Nobelrdquo) the 2005 Lannan Founda on Cultural Freedom Fellowship

Award the Cita on of Life me Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Envi-ronment Awards the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding EnvironmentalAchievement Award the 2009 Planet in Focus Eco Hero Award and the2011 EarthCare Award the highest interna onal honour of the Sierra Club(US)

In 20082009 she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd Presidentof the United Na ons General Assembly and was a leader in the campaignto have water recognized as a human right by the UN She is also the au-thor of dozens of reports as well as 17 books including her latest BlueFuture Protec ng Water For People And The Planet Forever

Photo by WolfgangSchmidt

Photo credits

All photos by The Council of Canadians except page 9 Kevin Mar ni via Flickr CC by-nc-sa 20



BLUE BETRAYAL The Harper governmentrsquos assault on Canadarsquos freshwater 3


Canadians have long taken our water heritage forgranted This is largely due to the myth that wehave an abundance of water and can never run outWhile it is true that compared to many other parts

of the world Canada is blessed with water it is falsethat we have water to waste or sell

It is o en quoted that Canada holds one- h of theworldrsquos water supplies and un l recently this ldquofactrdquocould be found on the Environment Canada web-site As aqua c scien st John Sprague explains thises ma on comes from tabula ng the water si ngin Canadarsquos lakes The only way to use this water isto drain the lakes which would obviously destroywhole watersheds Canada has in fact about 65per cent of the worldrsquos renewable water ndash water

that we can use without destroying the stock

But even this is misleading as most of our waterows north to mighty rivers out of reach of the 90

per cent of Canadians who live in the south alongthe Canada-US border The supply of water in thesouth is only 26 per cent of the worldrsquos total and isdiminishing at a ldquotroubling raterdquo according to gov-

ernment studies Largely due to climate changesouthern Canada has lost enough water to ll 14million Olympic-sized swimming pools every yearover the past three decades ndash a decline of 85 per

cent1

A 2012 study by a group of American scien stspublished in the journal Geoscience stated that thedrought western North America has experiencedduring the last decade is the worst in 800 years Thesitua on will steadily decline say the authors andthe droughts we are experiencing now will likely beseen as the ldquowet endrdquo of a drier hydro-climate pre-dicted for the rest of the 21st century 2 Canada isnot immune to the water crisis facing the planet

This report will examine Prime Minister StephenHarperrsquos record on freshwater protec on It is im-portant to state that the Harper government is notthe rst to have neglected Canadarsquos freshwater her-itage Successive federal Liberal and Conserva vegovernments have bought into the myth of waterabundance and have allowed serious deteriora onof our lakes rivers and groundwater




Many exis ng threats

There are many serious issues facing Canadarsquosfreshwater Li le is known about groundwater sup-plies that more and more Canadians rely every yearfor their water sources Climate change industrialfarming mel ng glaciers wetland and forest de-struc on oil gas and mineral extrac on and thedumping of waste into our waterways are all grow-ing threats to our diminishing water supplies

Mul point pollu on climate change eutrophica-on over-extrac on invasive species and wetland

loss are all taking their toll on the Great Lakes wa-tershed which provides life and livelihood to over40 million people and thousands of species who livearound it There are at least 204 pollutants in theGreat Lakes 3 On average Canadian industrial facili-

es release almost three mes more carcinogenicand reproduc ve toxins than American facili es

Fish from the Great Lakes are loaded with contami-nants such as mercury dioxins lead and PCBs TheSierra Club calls the sewer systems in many GreatLakes ci es ldquoan quatedrdquo and reports they rou nelydump raw sewage in the Lakes

Industrial and agribusiness-based chemical con-taminants from the North American heartland arekilling the beluga whales of the St Lawrence Estu-ary The St Lawrence has been named among thetop 10 most endangered rivers in North Americaby American Rivers One-quarter of all the St Law-rence belugas have cancer and are among the mostcontaminated marine mammals in the world In just70 years 90 per cent of the belugas of the St Law-rence have disappeared

Intensive hog farming is largely blamed for the stateof Lake Winnipeg the tenth largest lake in the worldand o en referred to as ldquoCanadarsquos sickest lakerdquoWhat was once a small patch of algae now grows tosmother more than half of the 24500-square-kilo-metre lake each summer Macleanrsquos Magazine callsthe algae the ldquoputrid green matrdquo which is twice thesize of Prince Edward Island and is killing the shand destroying the tourist industry Some scien stsfear Lake Winnipeg is already beyond help

Canada is one of the few industrialized countriesin the world not to have legally enforced drink-ing water standards A recent study by Ecojus cefound that Canadarsquos water standards con nue tolag behind interna onal benchmarks and are at riskof falling even further behind ldquoThere is no reasonCanadians shouldnrsquot have the safest drinking waterin the worldrdquo said study co-author Randy Chris-tensen ldquoBut regulatory e orts required to createimplement and maintain strong world-class stan-dards are sorely lackingrdquo 4

Most at risk from poor drinking water and sanita-on services are Indigenous peoples First Na onsrsquo

homes are 90 per cent more likely to be withoutrunning water than the homes of other Canadians

Canadarsquos fresh water in peril

There are at least204 pollutants in theGreat Lakes

25 of the St Lawrencebelugas have cancerOver 90 have disap-peared in the past70 years

Algae now coversover 12000 square

kilolmetres of LakeWinnipeg each sum-mer




The Harper agenda against the environment becomes clear

While the government of Stephen Harper inheritedthis situa on it has dis nguished itself as beingfar more than just another negligent governmentwhen it comes to protec ng Canadarsquos freshwaterheritage The Harper government has taken clearsteps to gut the regulatory framework that ndash mod-est as it was ndash o ered some protec ons to lakes riv-ers and groundwater in Canada and turned policyand prac ce upside down to advance the interestsof the energy industry

Early on in its mandate the Harper government al-lowed a loophole in the Metal Mining E uent Reg-ula on of the Fisheries Act to give the green light tomining companies to dump their toxic waste intolakes Originally intended only to apply to lakesthat were already dead ldquoSchedule 2rdquo reclassi edhealthy lakes as a ldquotailings impoundment areasrdquoand no longer protected them under the Fisheries

Act Already Sandy Pond in Newfoundland has beendestroyed under this loophole and EnvironmentCanada has released the names of 29 natural waterbodies that mining companies have applied to useas toxic waste dumps

In Bill C-38 (2012) and Bill C-45 (2013) two notori-ous omnibus bills each more that 400 pages longthe Harper government made dras c and destruc-

ve changes to freshwater protec on in Canada allwith no public or Indigenous consulta on

The omnibus bills further gu ed the Fisheries Act once the strongest piece of Canadian legisla on toprotect water The old Fisheries Act clearly statedthat it was a criminal o ence to deposit a delete-rious substance into waters inhabited by sh Thenew law no longer protects these habitats and islimited to ldquoserious harmrdquo to sh that have commer-cial recrea onal or Aboriginal purposes The new

rules allow the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans toauthorize deposits of deleterious substances if theldquowhole of the deposit in not acutely lethal to shrdquoThe regula on de nes ldquoacutely lethalrdquo as a depositthat kills more than 50 per cent of sh at 100 percent concentra on over a 96-hour period As Coun-cil of Canadians na onal water campaigner EmmaLui points out this threshold does not take into ac-

count that some mes the most damaging pollu onis slow and chronic

When the Harper government modi ed the Navi-

gable Waters Protec on Act (NWPA) it strippedprotec ons from 99 per cent of lakes and rivers inCanada The new act exempts pipelines which are ahuge threat to Canadarsquos waterways Major pipelinesand interprovincial power lines can now cross overand under more than 31000 lakes and 225 millionrivers without federal scru ny As well overseeingthe few remaining protec ons of navigable watershas been transferred to the Na onal Energy Boarditself now only a body that can ldquorecommendrdquo on acourse of ac on Final decisions on major pipelineand extrac on projects are now up to Cabinet

The removal of protec ons from 99 per cent oflakes and rivers was decried as a viola on of Indig-

enous treaty rights by First Na ons and spurred thegrassroots ldquoIdle No Morerdquo movement The MikisewCree won a Federal Court legal challenge a rmingthat the Harper government should have consultedwith First Na ons before introducing the omnibusbills C-38 and C-45

ldquoThe Navigable WatersProtec on Act no longerprotects water The FisheriesAct no longer protects shThe Environmental Assess-

ment Act no longer requiresenvironmental assessmentsbe done before importantdecisions are maderdquo

- Lake Ontario Waterkeeper




In elimina ng the Hazardous Materials Informa-on Review Commission the Harper government

threatened the safety of workers handling noxiouschemicals This move scrapped assessments onwhether companies were in compliance with Work-place Hazardous Materials Informa on SystemNinety per cent of companies were out of compli-ance in 2011-2012

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act re -quired an environmental assessment of all majorconstruc on projects under federal jurisdic onincluding near waterways that cross provincialboundaries It was replaced with a watered-downversion that immediately resulted in the cancella-

on of 3000 ac ve environmental assessmentsMore disturbing the new rules give Cabinet theright to determine which projects will be assessedand to ignore the ndings of ones they permit

As Lake Ontario Waterkeeper states rdquo The Naviga-ble Waters Protec on Act no longer protects waterThe Fisheries Act no longer protects sh The Envi-ronmental Assessment Act no longer requires envi-ronmental assessments be done before importantdecisions are maderdquo 5

The Harper government has also singularly targetedindependent science and scien sts shu ng downdozens of research projects facili es and ins tutesconduc ng basic scien c research Scien sts andenvironmentalists put up a huge ght to save theExperimental Lakes Area (ELA) the worldrsquos leadingfreshwater research centre which has done groundbreaking work on acid rain household pollutantsand mercury contamina on Fortunately the On-tario and Manitoba governments have rescued theELA temporarily but its future is s ll precarious

The Harper government also slashed sta at the Ca-nadian Centre for Inland Waters the most impor-tant science-monitoring agency for the imperilledGreat Lakes and killed the Global EnvironmentalMonitoring System Water Program a Canadianresearch network that monitored the health offreshwater lakes around the world for the UnitedNa ons

Deep government cuts to federal departments andagencies responsible for protec ng the environ-ment threaten science the environment and pub-lic health Cuts include Parks Canada which is nolonger required to conduct environmental auditsEnvironment Canada which gu ed the unit thatresponds to oil spill emergencies just as the gov-ernment is suppor ng massive new pipeline con-struc on and Fisheries and Oceans which has shutdown its marine pollu on monitoring program andlaid o all habitat inspectors in BC

The Harper government has also invited energycompanies to begin drilling for oil in the ecologi-cally fragile Gulf of St Lawrence having watereddown the Coas ng Trade Act and gu ed the Cen-tre for O shore Oil Gas and Energy Research theonly agency that had the ability to assess o shoreprojects

Of paramount concern for basic science is the elimi-na on of the grants programs administered by theNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Councilwhich funded opera ons at experimental researchfacili es Gone too is the 24-year old Na onalRoundtable on the Environment and the Economyan independent source of expert advice the govern-ment no longer wants to hear Federal funding waspulled from the Canadian Environmental NetworkThe Na onal Science Advisor was let go and not re-placed

Mark Calzavara of the Council of Canadians spreads the message dur-ing the campaign to save the Experimental Lakes Area




The energy industry sets environmental policy

The Harper governmentrsquos cuts to Canadarsquos environ-mental laws were spelled out in a December 2012le er obtained by Greenpeace The le er revealedthat the oil and gas industry ndash through a groupcalled the Energy Framework Ini a ve that includesthe major players in the industry ndash outlined six lawsit wanted amended in order for it to do its workThose laws included the Canadian Environmental

Assessment Act the Fisheries Act the NavigableWaters Protec on Act the Species at Risk Act andthe Migratory Birds Conven on Act All but the lastwhich is a treaty with the US and therefore noteasily broken have been savaged

A report by the O awa-based Polaris Ins tute foundthat the Canadian energy industry has gained unri-valled access to the Harper government in recentyears Since 2008 there have been 2733 mee ngsheld between the oil industry and federal govern-ment o cials many of them cabinet ministers Thisnumber outstrips mee ngs with environmental or-ganiza ons by 463 per cent

The Harper government is determined to turn Can-ada into an energy superpower and is removing allimpediments Prime Minister Harper abandonedthe Kyoto Protocol making Canada the only countryin the world to ra fy and then abandon that climatetreaty As funding for scien c and environmentalresearch is slashed energy subsidies top $34 bil-lion each year in direct support to producers andthrough uncollected taxes on externalized costs re-ports the Interna onal Monetary Fund 6

The Globe and Mail called the October 2014 annualreport of the Commissioner of the Environment andSustainable Development ldquoscathingrdquo and ldquoa sweep-ing cri querdquo of the Harper record CommissionerJulie Gelfand wrote that the Harper government

has no detailed plan to meet its emissions reduc-on targets is on pace to fall well short of mee ngits interna onal obliga ons and has made no longterm commitment to environmental monitoring inthe tar sands region In fact Commissioner Gelfandreported that the federal government has no planin place to monitor the tar sands beyond 2015 7

As well the Harper government has turned theNa onal Energy Board (NEB) once charged withprotec ng public safety the environment and land-ownersrsquo rights on proposed pipeline projects intoa ldquocaptured regulatorrdquo says journalist and authorAndrew Nikiforuk The NEB is basically an enablingpartner with the big energy companies whoseboard members are pro-energy lawyers and engi-neers with es to the industry The board is madeup of white Conserva ves from Calgary Nikiforukpoints out and there are no board members whoare experts in public health environmental assess-ment or pipeline safety or any First Na ons repre-senta ves 8

This view is backed up by Marc Eliesen formerCEO of BC Hydro and former Suncor board mem-ber who in November 2014 withdrew as an inter-vener from hearings into a proposed Kinder Mor-gan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion accusingthe board of being a rubber stamp for the industryEliesen expressed dismay that the NEB has droppedoral cross-examina on of proponents and had notresponded to 2000 ques ons submi ed by inter-veners rejec ng 95 per cent of the queries ldquoItrsquosreached a stage where the NEB is not interested inthe public interest and more interested in facilitat-ing the infrastructure for the oil and gas industryrdquohe said 9

ldquoItrsquos reached a stage wherethe (Na onal Energy Board)is not interested in thepublic interest and moreinterested in facilita ng theinfrastructure for the oiland gas industryrdquo

- Marc Elieson former CEO of BC Hydroand former Suncor board member




Deregula on endangers Canadarsquos freshwater

These regulatory changes made to facilitate growthof the energy sector present a clear and presentdanger to Canadarsquos freshwater systems Energyprojects such as the growth of the tar sands newpipelines and fracking opera ons are being giventhe green light with almost no federal scru ny

Of the 3000 assessments that were cancelled inthe omnibus Bill C-38 several included pipelineproject reviews where communi es had raised seri-ous concerns about drinking water reports Councilof Canadians energy and climate jus ce campaign-er Andrea Harden-Donahue For instance the envi-ronmental assessment for TransCanadarsquos KeystoneXL project to construct and operate a crude oil ter-minal and pipeline infrastructure near Hardisty Al-berta was cancelled

The fracking frenzy in BC is now able to grow withli le or no federal oversight The EnCana opera onin the Horn River Basin of northeastern Bri sh Co-lumbia is massive with 16 two-hectare well sitesand 20 well pads The Fort Nelson First Na on isdeeply concerned about plans to expand fracking inthe area that would dam the Peace River oodinghundreds of square kilometres There are plans toapprove dozens of new licences that would allowenergy companies to take billions of litres of water

from local lakes and rivers The band calls the proj-ect the ldquoShale Galerdquo and has stated that it repre-sents ldquothe largest and most destruc ve industrialforce that our waters have ever knownrdquo

A federal environmental assessment of Encanarsquos re-quest to withdraw 10 million litres of water per dayfor fracking from the Fort Nelson River was anothervic m of the Harper deregula on

Federal oversight of Albertarsquos tar sands is now com-promised pu ng local water supplies at greaterrisk Alberta is home to the largest deposits of tarsands in the world and processes almost 2 millionbarrels of bitumen every day It takes huge quan -

es of water to steam blast oil from the sands For

every barrel of oil recovered from the tar sandsthree to ve barrels of water are used to produceit Every year Alberta tar sands produc on con-sumes an amount of water equivalent to the resi-den al use of water by almost 2 million CanadiansAt the tar sandsrsquo current rate of growth by 2050the downstream ow of the Athabasca River is pro- jected to decrease by 30 per cent according to thePembina Ins tute

Tailings ponds in the Alberta tar sands Tar Sands opera ons use anddestroy millions of litres of fresh water each day




A er the water is used it is dumped in massive tox-ic lagoons so dangerous birds die on impact Onehundred and seventy square kilometres of thesepoisoned lakes leach 11 million litres of toxic waterinto the watershed every day says aqua c scien stDavid Schindler If current expansion plans are re-alized (although the drop in oil prices may changethese plans) the Alberta tar sands could one day beusing ndash and destroying ndash about 20 million barrels ofwater per day

This expansion requires the construc on of hugenew pipelines raising deep concern over poten-

al spills The proposed Northern Gateway pipe-line would carry dilbit ndash tar sands bitumen dilutedwith liquid chemicals such as benzene ndash across 800pris ne rivers and streams to be loaded onto super-tankers carrying the dir est oil on Earth by ship tomarkets in Asia The proposed Energy East pipeline ndash the biggest of them all with a carrying capacity of11 million barrels of bitumen a day ndash would crossover at least 90 watersheds and 961 waterwaysalong its route The crude would be shipped froma deep-sea port in New Brunswick to the US andAsia Both of these pipelines would cross mul ple

First Na ons territories

There are also plans to expand north-south pipelinesaround and even under the Great Lakes pu ng thewatershed in grave danger Enbridgersquos ldquoLakeheadSystemrdquo is already one of the largest networks ofpipelines in the world and the company has majorplans for expansion in the region It has sought per-mission from the US State Department to double

the capacity of its Alberta Clipper line now carryingAlberta crude to a re nery in Superior WisconsinIf permi ed this pipeline would carry 800000 bar-rels of dilbit a day The company that owns the Wis-consin re nery has applied to build a deep-sea portthat would move some of the bitumen across theGreat Lakes by barge to other re neries Communi-

es have opposed Suncorrsquos plans to ship tar sandsbitumen on the St Lawrence River The Harper gov-ernment changed regula ons in December 2013

increasing the size of ships allowed and pu ng thewaterway at even greater risk of a spill

Unlike conven onal crude diluted bitumen sinks inwater making cleanup e orts far more di cult Aspill or accident would devastate the Great Lakes orany of the thousands of waterways these currentand proposed pipelines cross Pipeline ruptures ofAlberta dilbit in the US have proven devasta ng tothe local watersheds A 2010 rupture in Michiganspilled 38 million litres of dilbit into the KalamazooRiver and contaminated close to 60 kilometres ofwater Canadian o cials and panels have warnedthat Canada is unprepared for spills of diluted bi-tumen and other noxious substances increasinglybeing carried near or on Canadian waterways 10 This is simply the worst me a government couldhave chosen to gut federal regula ons exposingCanadarsquos en re freshwater system to devasta ngthreats

A health department no ce warns residents away from the KalamzooRiver which was devasted by 38 million litres of diluted bitumen a era pipeline rupture in 2010




Harper opens the door to water priva za on

Deregula on is not the only way the Harper govern-ment has threatened water In Canada water hasalways been considered an essen al public serviceWhile the delivery of water services falls to localgovernments provincial and federal funds are re-quired for infrastructure investment and repair Inthe past these funds have come with no strings at-tached

However the Harper government favours thepriva za on of water services in Canada through aprocess called public-private partnerships or P3swhereby a municipality brings in a private contrac-tor to deliver water services on a for-pro t basisIn 2009 the government set up a Crown Corpora-

on called Public-Private Partnership Canada witha fund of $12 billion to promote private opera onsand nancing of public infrastructure and servicesFive years later it established a $14 billion 10-yearBuilding Canada Fund that allocates federal fundson a P3 model approved by the Crown Corpora onNew rules now mean that municipali es seekingfederal funding for upgrading or building new waterinfrastructure projects must adopt a P3 as a condi-

on of receiving the money

Canadian municipali es are being given no choiceby an ideologically driven federal governmentWhile some such as Abbotsford BC have re- jected federal funds that come with such strings at-tached others such as Regina Saskatchewan andSaint John New Brunswick have accepted federalfunding and opted for P3 wastewater treatmentservices

The priva za on of water services has been triedand discredited Studies show that private wateru li es cut workers and services skirt pollu onrules and raise water rates They also end up be-

ing more expensive in the long run In the UnitedStates private water companies charge 33 per centmore for water and 63 per cent more for sewageservices than local government providers 11 Morethan 185 municipali es around the world havetried priva zing their water services and broughtthem back under public control Yet the Harper gov-ernment is forcing a for-pro t water system on theCanadian people

Furthermore by promo ng the Canada-EuropeanUnion Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agree-ment (CETA) the Harper government will giveFrench u lity giants Suez and Veolia the right tochallenge Canadian municipali es that try to remu-nicipalize their water services if in the future theydecide priva za on was a mistake CETA containsan ldquoinvestor-staterdquo provision that will allow foreigncorpora ons to sue the government of anothercountry if they believe their ldquoright to pro trdquo hasbeen a ected by a law or prac ce in that countrysuch as returning to a public system a er havingpriva zed an essen al public service

CETA will also permit Swiss bo led water giantNestleacute whose water divisionrsquos headquarters are inFrance the right to challenge provincial bans or lim-its imposed on bo led water takings

Canada is a large net exporter of virtual water Dueto its high volume of agricultural exports Canada isa major virtual water exporter second in the world

Accoun ng for Public-Private Partnerships (P3s)

The increase incosts for priva zedwater services

33The increase in

costs for priva zedsewage services

63

The number of municipali es that havetried and then abandoned priva zedwater services

185

The amount of money the Harpergovernment has dedicated to P3s

$14 billion




only to the United States Our freshwater heritageis at risk from the lack of government concern poorinforma on mapping and research on our ground-water and surface water supplies and the almosttotal absence of policy interven on by any level ofgovernment to set condi ons on access to freshwater sources for export-driven produc on

Under CETA Canadian beef producers will exportclose to 70000 tonnes of beef to Europe and porkproducers an undisclosed but higher amount ofpork Meat produc on is highly water intensiveIt takes over 15 million litres of water to produceone tonne of beef Much of these beef exports willcome from water-stressed Alberta where the indus-try is already (pre-CETA) expected to double its wa-ter footprint by 2025 Much of the pork will comefrom Manitoba where hog opera ons are alreadythe acknowledged source of much of the eutro-phica on killing Lake Winnipeg In promo ng CETAwith no protec ons for our water Harper is furtherthreatening our declining water supplies already atsuch risk from deregula on

But CETA isnrsquot the only trade deal having a nega veimpact

In September 2014 the Harper government ra -ed the deeply unpopular Foreign Investment Pro-

mo on and Protec on Agreement with China thatwill give the Chinese state-owned energy companyCNOOC the right to sue the Canadian governmentif the pipelines the company is depending on tocarry Alberta tar sands bitumen to export marketsdonrsquot get built

These and other new trade deals further entrenchtrade agreements that give corpora ons access toCanadarsquos water Investor-state rights rst appearedin the 1995 North American Free Trade Agreementand have exploded since then NAFTA was used

to compensate American toxic disposal companySD Myers $8 million for loss of pro t a er Cana-da banned the trade of PCBs to protect its waterNAFTA was used to compensate American pulp andpaper giant Abi bibowater $130 million for ldquowaterrightsrdquo it le behind when it abandoned its opera-

ons in Newfoundland and Labrador also leavingbehind unpaid pensions Currently American en-ergy company Lone Pine Resources is suing the

government of Canada for $250 million because in2011 Quebec shut the door on shale gas fracking inorder to protect its water reserves

What these and other investor-state agreements dois lock in the priva za on and deregula on Prime

Minister Harper favours long a er he has le poli-cs Any future government that tries to recreate

the water protec on rules gu ed by this govern-ment will likely face challenges from foreign corpo-ra ons that pro t from the lower standards

Investor-state rights are the trojan horse of free trade deals allowing private corpora ons to challange government regula ons ndash includingenvironmental protec ons and municipal services




Harperrsquos foreign aid policy endangers water in the Global South

The Harper governmentrsquos nega ve reach extendsto water beyond Canadian borders Stephen Harperopenly supports the Canadian mining industry in-creasingly cri cized around the world for its humanrights and environmental abuses

Canada is home to 75 per cent of the worldrsquos miningcompanies and an industry report found Canadiancompanies four mes more likely to be at the centreof human rights and environmental con icts thanother western countries 12 There are currently 118mining con icts in 15 countries in La n AmericaMining Watch Canada says that almost one-thirdof these involve Canadian companies In Mexicowhere Canadian companies account for 204 of the269 foreign mining companies a series of assassi-na ons of an -mining ac vists has set the stakesvery high for anyone resis ng big mines and hasmade Canada a pariah in the interna onal humanrights community

Yet the Harper government has been working hardalongside the industry to create industry-friendlymining laws in the Global South that have resultedin weaker environmental and human rights laws ina number of countries enabling Canadian miningcompanies to operate with less scru ny In 2010the Harper government defeated a bill that wouldhave established some controls on the behaviour ofthese companies when opera ng abroad The nextyear it announced an agreement ndash paid for withpublic funds ndash between three Canadian mining gi-ants and three leading aid agencies to link foreignaid to ldquoeconomic developmentrdquo The condi on forreceiving funding was that the aid money must beused to promote development projects linked toCanadian mining companies in the recipient coun-try

The Canadian Interna onal Council says this ini a-ve is emblema c of a new turn in Canadian for-

eign policy which it calls ldquothe commercializa onof aidrdquo 13 Under the guise of support to corporatesocial responsibility the Harper government hasCanadian open-pit mining opera ons in Guatemala endanger local

water supplies despite strong community resistance




shi ed aid policy from one based on humanitarianprinciples to one promo ng the bo om line inter-ests of Canadian mining companies This comes ata me when the foreign aid budget has been cutbadly and many NGOs that refuse to par cipate insuch ldquopartnershipsrdquo have had their funding slashedIn a 2014 report the Canadian Interna onal Devel-opment Agency clearly spelled out the Harper gov-ernmentrsquos new policy the commercial interests ofCanadian industry are now paramount when deter-mining which countries will receive foreign aid 14

The changes made to Canadarsquos aid policy have a di-rect and very nega ve impact on the water of manycommuni es in the Global South Currently miningis the second largest industrial user of water (notincluding agriculture) a er the power genera onindustry reports industry journal Global Water In-telligence The mining industry uses between sevenand nine billion cubic metres of water annually ndashabout as much water as a country like Nigeria or

Malaysia uses every year 15 As well each year min-ing companies dump more than 180 million tonsof hazardous waste into rivers lakes and oceansworldwide 15 mes the amount of municipal solidwaste the US sends to land lls every year

In their 2012 report Troubled Waters Mining WatchCanada and Washington-based Earthworks showhow many mining companies including Canadianmining companies con nue to use worst prac cesin their waste disposal when they have alterna-

ve methods available Their tailings can containas many as three-dozen dangerous chemicals in-cluding arsenic lead mercury and cyanide Manycompanies are guilty of a double standard dump-ing their mine wastes into the rivers and oceans ofother countries even though their home countrieshave bans or restric ons on the prac ce Of theworldrsquos largest mining companies only one has pol-icies against dumping in rivers and oceans and nonehave policies against dumping in lakes 16

Conclusion

The Harper government has put Canadarsquos freshwa-ter heritage at great risk and increased the likeli-hood of water pollu on by Canadian mining com-panies in the Global South The values of greeddriving the Harper governmentrsquos policies are notshared by the majority of Canadians who want ourwaterways protected by strong laws and who viewwater as an essen al public service It will take po-li cal will given the straightjacket that NAFTA CETA

and other similar trade deals have imposed on fu-ture governments to undo the damage done in thislast decade But in a world running out of accessiblewater we have no choice but to ght for the lawsand policies that will protect our water for peopleand the planet forever

Maude Barlow speaking on Parliament Hill at a rally against thedestruc on of the tar sands






Further reading

Energy East Where oil meets water outlines the risks associated with trans-por ng diluted bitumen and the erosion of environmental protec ons and

describes some of the over 900 waterways threatened by the proposed EnergyEast pipeline

Read the report online at wwwcanadiansorgenergyeast-waterways

Liquid Pipeline Extreme energyrsquos threat to the Great Lakes and the St Law-rence River details plans to transport dangerous new forms of energy ndash as wellas the waste from more tradi onal forms ndash around under and on the GreatLakes and the St Lawrence River It is also a call to ac on to stop these plansbefore it is too late

Read the report online at wwwcanadiansorgliquid-pipeline

Paying for water in Canada in a me of austerity and priva za on explores

the issue of how to pay for water access and water services in Canada at a mewhen the Harper government and many provincial governments are slashingfunding to essen al services

Read the report online at wwwcanadiansorgpaying-for-water



300-251 Bank StreetOttawa ON K2P 1X3canadiansorg | 1-800-387-7177 March 2015



BLUE BETRAYAL The Harper governmentrsquos assault on Canadarsquos freshwater is published under the Crea ve Commons licenceA ribu on-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 40

About the Author

Maude Barlow is the Na onal Chairperson of the Council of Canadiansand chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch She isa board member of the San Franciscondashbased Interna onal Forum on Glo-baliza on and a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council

Maude is the recipient of twelve honorary doctorates as well as manyawards including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the ldquoAlter-na ve Nobelrdquo) the 2005 Lannan Founda on Cultural Freedom Fellowship

Award the Cita on of Life me Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Envi-ronment Awards the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding EnvironmentalAchievement Award the 2009 Planet in Focus Eco Hero Award and the2011 EarthCare Award the highest interna onal honour of the Sierra Club(US)

In 20082009 she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd Presidentof the United Na ons General Assembly and was a leader in the campaignto have water recognized as a human right by the UN She is also the au-thor of dozens of reports as well as 17 books including her latest BlueFuture Protec ng Water For People And The Planet Forever

Photo by WolfgangSchmidt

Photo credits

All photos by The Council of Canadians except page 9 Kevin Mar ni via Flickr CC by-nc-sa 20












cent1















































































































33The increase in


63


185


$14 billion



































Conclusion









Further reading























cent1















































































































33The increase in


63


185


$14 billion



































Conclusion









Further reading
























































































































33The increase in


63


185


$14 billion



































Conclusion









Further reading














































Conclusion









Further reading












council of canadians - report - blue betrayal

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