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

To: Stephen O who wrote (12251)	10/5/2007 11:46:50 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 37508

What would happen if Jean Cretin needed a transplant? Care to speculate?

To: Stephen O who wrote (12251)	10/6/2007 11:02:05 PM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 37508

This article is good for a laugh... U.S. has no designs on Canada's water, says consul general 'We are hoping this story will go away' Renata D'Aliesio, Calgary Herald Published: Saturday, October 06, 2007 The U.S. government is not eyeing Canada's water, a senior American envoy said in Calgary on Friday. "We seek no bulk water transfers," Tom Huffaker, the U.S. consul general for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, told a one-day conference on transboundary water policy. "Our policy has not changed at all," Huffaker added in an interview afterward. "We've just developed a public point that is more emphatic and more clear on this subject and we just really want to get that across to Canadians. We are hoping this story will go away. I don't know that it will." Concerns in Canada persist. Earlier this year, the Council of Canadians voiced its opposition to bulk water exports being discussed at a trilateral meeting in Calgary involving North American government and business executives. The citizen advocacy organization is calling on Ottawa to initiate talks with American and Mexican counterparts to exclude water from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Bob Page of the University of Calgary's Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy participated in NAFTA negotiations. While the former vice-president with energy giant TransAlta agrees the federal government should establish a clearly defined policy against water exports, he doesn't believe Canadians need to worry about dams and pipelines being built to transport water to the arid American southwest. Such a diversion plan is simply too expensive, Page contends. "The thing that the people who are trying to stir up all the concerns about interbasin transfer of water, none of them put the proper cost-benefit analysis as part of it," he said. "I think there's a degree of scare tactics involved. "If the economics aren't there, there's no way in which you are going to get that kind of bulk water transport." Page expects water-scare states like California will instead pursue cheaper alternatives, such as making salt water fit to drink. Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner said he was pleased Huffaker said the U.S. government isn't interested in taking Canada's water. Alberta would never sell it, he added. Like parts of the U.S., Alberta is also dealing with water-scarcity challenges. Last year, the provincial government closed off nearly every southern Alberta river, lake and stream to new requests for water. The moratorium has left several municipalities and developers scrambling for water at a time when the population and economy are growing faster here than in any other province. "There are some disturbing parallels between California and Alberta," said Henry Vaux Jr., a prominent water expert with the University of California at Berkeley. He said both jurisdictions haven't collected sufficient water data, are rapidly growing, and have large amounts of water tied up in irrigating cropland. "You can't do a good job of water management if you don't know how much water you have and what condition it's in," Vaux said. He believes Alberta still has time to get it right, although the window is closing. "California's problems don't have to be repeated here." © The Calgary Herald 2007