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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (11710)	4/13/2007 9:42:58 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 37549

Gulp! Canada's water on the table in talks with parched U.S., Mexico To draft 'blueprint' on economic integration canada.com KELLY PATTERSON, CanWest News Service Published: Friday, April 13, 2007 Canadian water is on the table at trilateral talks among politicians, business people and academics from Canada, the United States and Mexico. Discussion of "water transfers" and diversions is to take place during a series of closed-door conferences, according to an outline for the North American Future 2025 Project. The project is a trilateral effort to draft a "blueprint" on economic integration for the governments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. It was launched by the three nations in March 2006 to help guide the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a bid to further integrate everything from environmental rules to security protocols and border controls. A draft report is to be submitted to the three heads of state at a partnership summit in Alberta in August. "It's no secret that the U.S. is going to need water," said project director Armand Peschard-Sverdrup. "It's no secret that Canada is going to have an overabundance of water. At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements." The project is spearheaded by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a powerful Washington think tank, in partnership with the Conference Board of Canada, a not-for-profit group that studies economic trends, and CIDE, a Mexican policy institute. No one will force Canada to sell its water, Peschard-Sverdrup said yesterday, stressing that the project is "an analytical exercise ... it doesn't commit the governments to anything." "Canada will have to make its own decisions. We recognize that." He recounted that water was "the most sensitive topic in conversations" with the Privy Council Office when the the project was launched under the former Liberal government. "But they all felt at the end of the day that it's an issue that had to be looked at." Water and other environmental issues will be the topic of talks in Calgary on April 27 to which some environmental research groups have been invited, he added. News of the talks emerged the same day as the UN's blue-chip panel on climate change made public a report predicting the U.S. would clash with water-rich Canada as the drought-stricken Midwest looks north to the Great Lakes. Gordon Hodgson of the Ottawa-based Conference Board said yesterday that even though the outline for the Future 2025 Project includes the board's logo, it does not necessarily reflect his institute's views. "The reality the Americans perhaps don't fully appreciate is that we don't have a whole lot of water to export," Hodgson said. "There are near-scarcity conditions in western Canada, and a lot of water is being used to extract bitumen from the oil sands." The outline is just a "catalyst for discussions," he said. But Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, the nation's largest citizens' group, expressed concern yesterday. She said the outline "shows the American government and its think tanks ... see Canada's water as a North American resource, not Canada's." Barlow called for a national debate on Canada's water policy, noting there is no law banning the bulk export of water, even as Canadian supplies dwindle. Canada has 20 per cent of the world's water "if you drained every lake and river" - but actual available supply amounts to only about seven per cent, she said. The outline notes that "fresh water is running out in many regions of the world," particularly the U.S. and Mexico, while "Canada possesses about 20 per cent of the Earth's fresh water." It goes on to say Canada, the U.S. and Mexico must discuss such solutions as bilateral agreements on "water transfers" and the diversion of water. The outline notes "the overriding future goal of North America is to achieve joint optimum utilization of the available water." Pressure on Canada from the U.S. will be intense, according to the UN report. It warns that drought might cut by 40 per cent a key Texas aquifer that supplies water for 2 million people, and decimate the Ogallala aquifer, which underlies eight U.S. states. Ottawa Citizen © The Gazette (Montreal) 2007