A provincial government proposal to market Alberta’s water could lead to multinational corporations owning a life-sustaining resource, a public advocate says.
Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive-director of Public Interest Alberta, is concerned that water in this province could become owned by the international hedge funds that have bought up Australia’s water rights.
The result in Australia has been that these private corporations now control growth, expansion, and even the kind of crops farmers can grow. “The price of water has sky-rocketed” because these companies flip these rights for a massive profit, added Moore-Kilgannon.
“In a time of drought, how much do you think the City of Red Deer will be paying for its water?”
Moore-Kilgannon was in Red Deer on Tuesday night with water allocation expert Jeremy Schmidt to warn the public to pay attention to the reforms the provincial government has been considering.
It’s critical that citizens become aware of what’s at stake, Moore-Kilgannon added.
Some water marketing is already being done to a limited degree in Southern Alberta, where 70 per cent of licenses are held for irrigation purposes. Since water in that part of the province is over allocated, licence holders can sell the unused portions of their licenses to those in need of water — for example, the Cross Iron Mills Mall.
But the province is now considering widening water marketing to the rest of the province, such as the Red Deer area, where water isn’t yet over allocated, said Schmidt, a University of Western Ontario Ph.d candidate, who authored a report for the Parkland Institute called Alternative Water Futures in Alberta.
Schmidt believes the provincial government needs to look beyond economics in the way it hands out water rights.
For instance, the current allocation system is not based on any scientific facts, such as how much water needs to remain in rivers and streams to sustain aquatic health and the environment, said Schmidt. Water quality is not measured and there’s no recognition that water is part of the public trust, he added.
“The government’s ownership is not absolute, but it should be acting for the public good.”
Schmidt isn’t suggesting that historic water allocations be scrapped, but that the provincial government consider better ways of proceeding in future. Among his recommendations are: enforcing minimum water flows for the protection of the ecosystem and human health; creating an independent board with expertise to develop water quality standards; reforming water allocation licenses to a proportion of watershed flows instead of granting absolute water quantities; and recognizing a First Nations water council with authority for planning in aboriginal territories.
Public Interest Alberta is concerned marketing water is being considered without the government looking for other allocation solutions.
One of the government-commissioned studies on water marketing proposed that the responsibility be handed off to a board that would operate at arm’s length from the Alberta government, said Moore-Kilgannon, who worries about the ethics of this.
“Huge amounts of money were spent (and) so much was going on behind closed doors that the average person was unaware of . . .”
Many Albertans only caught on when a head of Nestle Corporation mentioned during his speech in Europe in May that he was in discussions with the Alberta government on water marketing, said Moore-Kilgannon. “There’s huge lobbying pressure.”
Red Deer City Councillors Dianne Wyntjes and Buck Buchanan attended the forum because they want municipalities to maintain a supply of accessible, clean water. Any jump in future water costs will ultimately be borne by taxpayers, said Wyntjes.
“I think this is not the right thing,” said Buchanan of the province’s proposal to market water.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com