Our Blue Gold

Today marks the United Nations' International World Water Day, held annually on March 22 to direct attention to the importance of fresh water, and advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. As the world gets thirstier, attention has turned to the viability of bulk water exports, in particular from Canada.

In the past few years, several domestic think-tanks have researched this issue, and concluded that there is a potentially lucrative market for Canadian water. The Montreal Economic Institute has determined that Quebec could earn up to $65-billion annually by exporting 10% of its renewable freshwater resources. The Frontier Centre for Public Policy estimates that Manitoba could earn US$1.33-billion annually by exporting just 1% of the fresh water flowing into Hudson Bay, via a pipeline to American markets, thereby ending Manitoba's status as a have-not province.

A variety of bulk water projects have been proposed from both sides of the border over the past 50 years, none of which has come to fruition. These include NAWAPA, the North American Water and Power Alliance, which would have diverted water from the Yukon through the Rocky Mountains to the southwestern United States; the Central North American Water Project (CeNAWAP), which would have linked Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake to Lake Athabaska, Lake Winnipeg and then the Great Lakes; and

the Great Recycling And Northern Development (GRAND) Canal, which would have dammed and rerouted northern Quebec rivers to bring water to the American Midwest. More recently, smaller scale Canadian proposals have included a plan to export water by tanker from northern Quebec, a proposal to transport water to the United States from Lake Gisborne in Newfoundland, and from the Great Lakes to Asia. All these projects foundered due to lack of profitability, protests by environmentalists, public outcry and/or the withdrawal of initial government support.

In fact, governments at various levels have intervened to prevent bulk water exports. As of 2003, all provincial governments with the exception of New Brunswick had passed laws banning bulk water transfers. Several governments, including most recently Quebec, introduced legislation to declare groundwater a resource "common to all." As a 2009 study by the Fraser Institute concluded, such laws effectively abolish private property rights and transfer wealth from citizens to government, with no corresponding improvement in conservation.

Federally, the response has been more cautious. Despite pledges to ban bulk water sales by both the governments of Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper, no supporting legislation has been introduced. Of concern is article 315 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which maintains that once a commodity is traded between signatories, it cannot be withdrawn from commerce. In other words, once it started selling water, the Canadian government could not intervene to "turn off the tap" at a future date. Furthermore, as noted by author Frederic Lasserre in a recent issue of Policy Options magazine, a legislated ban would effectively recognize water's commercial status and bring it under the ambit of NAFTA, which is what the federal government wishes to avoid in the first place.