How much longer will we tolerate unsafe drinking water and polluted waterways? When will we crack down on industrial polluters – the chief culprits in many jurisdictions? And when will we clean up the sewage pollution that has become a national disgrace and an international black eye? It is "perhaps Canada’s ugliest environmental secret," with "pollution on a scale unseen outside the Third World," reported the Boston Globe. And yet our governments remain unconscionably complacent and indifferent to the need for immediate action.
Category Archives: Water and Wastewater
Water, water everywhere
Gallery
Local environmentalists are sparring over an upcoming city council debate on the future management of Toronto’s water system. The conflict features increasingly polarized arguments about proposals for the system’s ownership and operation, with some claiming the city is on its way to selling off its water supply.
Lessons From Walkerton
Gallery
Almost two years have passed since contaminated drinking water killed seven people and made 2,300 ill in Walkerton, Ontario. The tragedy called attention to severe deficiencies in water systems all across Canada. Consumers have been deluged with reports of their utilities’ failures to comply with regulations and to make desperately needed capital improvements.
Water hysteria
Gallery
They were all wet before and they are all wet again. Under the banner of Water Watch, CUPE and the Council of Canadians are turning their attention to keeping the private sector out of Toronto’s water and wastewater systems. Their arguments are as specious as ever.
No more Walkertons
Gallery
The headline of Ian Urquhart’s front-page article told readers of Toronto’s Saturday Star all he wanted them to believe about the Walkerton water tragedy: Disaster Flowed from Ideology. Mr. Urquhart called Justice Dennis O’Connor’s report on the causes of the tragedy a "stinging indictment of the Harris government and its neo-conservative agenda," explaining that "the Tories’ determination to cut spending and red tape laid the groundwork for what happened in May, 2000."
Lessons Learned from Walkerton
Gallery
A speech to the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships’s Ninth Annual Conference, held in Toronto, Ontario, on November 27, 2001.
Making Canada’s drinking water safe
Gallery
I write to you during a time of terrible insecurity. Since September 11th, we have had to confront our vulnerability on so many levels. We have feared for the safety of our communities. We have lost our casual confidence in the very air that we breathe. We have become painfully aware that much of our security rests upon a tissue of trust and cooperation – one that is delicate and, once torn, difficult to repair.
Privatized water ‘not solution’
Gallery
Turning Ontario’s drinking water operations over to private hands in an attempt to fix the ills in the system would be tragic, the Walkerton inquiry was told yesterday.
Implications of Private Ownership and Operations
Gallery
EPRF’s presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry’s Public Hearing on the Management of Water Providers recommends privatization in order to attract private capital and expertise, encourage efficiency, and enhance accountability.
The Ontario Clean Water Agency: Supplementary Information
Gallery
This submission to the Walkerton Inquiry concludes that OCWA is an unaccountable and ineffective agency that works in opposition to the public interest and discourages private sector involvement in the water sector.
Agricultural Pollution
Gallery
EPRF’s presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry’s Public Hearing on Specific Sources of Contaminants recommends that farmers bear the full costs of preventing pollution from their operations.
Tory cuts contributed to Walkerton tragedy, judge told
Gallery
The provincial Tories’ fixation on the bottom line contributed directly to deaths from tainted-water in Ontario, a lawyer for the provincial Public Service Employees Union argued Thursday.
Cost, not emotion, likely to kill export idea
Gallery
Water is heavy: 1,000 litres of water weighs a tonne. Pump water hundreds of kilometres through a pipeline, or pour it into a tanker and ship it any distance at all, and water becomes expensive.
The Privatization of Water Utilities in Ontario: Supplementary Report
Gallery
This supplementary report, prepared for by the Walkerton Inquiry, reveals a decade of provincial interest in privatization. It reviews the anticipated benefits of privatization and the barriers to it.
Why Canada’s water systems are failing us
Gallery
Elizabeth Brubaker, the executive director of Environment Probe, argues that all water subsidies in Canada should be removed. She made a case for the elimination of subsidies when she appeared before the inquiry investigating the tragedy in Walkerton, Ont., where seven people died last year after the water supply was contaminated with E. coli. Conservation, and the maintenance and protection of municipal water supplies, will only begin when we give water a proper price, Ms. Brubaker says.
Source Protection
Gallery
EPRF’s presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry’s Public Hearing on Source Protection recommends that the provincial government should grant no one the right to contaminate a source of water.
Written Submissions Regarding Part I of the Walkerton Inquiry
Gallery
This argument traces the Walkerton tragedy to the provincial government’s failed approach to regulation and enforcement and to its failure to implement its policies regarding the privatization and financing of water utilities.
The Role of Government
Gallery
EPRF’s presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry’s Public Hearing on the Provincial Government’s Functions recommends that the government should limit itself to strictly regulating water and wastewater systems. Continue reading
New water rules expected to increase rural costs
Gallery
Residents of Ontario’s small and remote communities may see their water bills skyrocket if the province sticks with its rigorous new drinking water regulations, an environmental policy group said Thursday.
Group advocates privatizing Ontario water system
Gallery
WALKERTON, ONT. – The public inquiry into the E. coli poisoning in Walkerton, Ont., is being urged to recommend the privatization of public water utilities in the province.
Environment Probe says private water systems will be more efficient and easier to operate. Seven people died after drinking Walkerton’s tainted water last year, and more than 2,000 others became sick.
Environment Probe 