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.
Treat farming like any industry and clean it up
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When it comes to polluting, farmers shouldn’t be treated any differently from industry, the Walkerton inquiry heard yesterday. Among the experts at the public hearing in Toronto was Elizabeth Brubaker of the Energy Probe Research Foundation. Farmers treated like industrialists, she said, would have to bear the cost of preventing pollution on their land. When it comes to polluting, farmers shouldn’t be treated any differently from industry, the Walkerton inquiry heard yesterday.
Free market, free Willy
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This defence of free market environmentalism, published in the Ottawa Citizen, cites Elizabeth Brubaker’s book, Property Rights in the Defence of Nature. Continue reading
Tory cuts contributed to Walkerton tragedy, judge told
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Group advocates privatizing Ontario water system
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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.
New water rules expected to increase rural costs
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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.
Incentives Matter
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EPRF’s presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry’s Public Hearing on Guiding Principles focuses on the need to eliminate conflicts of interest and to internalize costs.
Responding to the Crisis: Strengthening Regulation Through Privatization
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A presentation to the Safe and Clean Drinking Water Strategies Conference, held in Toronto, Ontario, on July 10, 2001.
The real agenda in Walkerton
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Ontario Premier Mike Harris survived his appearance yesterday before the Walkerton inquiry. More than survived: He triumphed. Facing an orchestrated ambush by smirking union lawyers, hired activists and placard-carrying demonstrators, Mr. Harris rose so far above the low politically motivated smears of his prosecutors that many citizens of Ontario must now be wondering about the validity of the Harris caricature they have been fed for most of the past year.
Reducing Risk By Creating Accountability
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Energy Probe Research Foundation’s submission to the Walkerton Inquiry’s Expert Meeting on Guiding Principles for Drinking Water Safety explores the critical role played by legal liability in risk management.
Walkerton seems ready to hang the wrong party
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The first anniversary of the Walkerton, Ont., water tragedy is approaching. Already the professional groundskeepers of public opinion are raking the town for the official laying of the blame ceremonies. They appear to have narrowed it down to two culprits, the Harris cutbacks and privatization. Despite overwhelming evidence that Walkerton is the product of gross inadequacies inherent in public sector ownership and major instances of individual public employee incompetence, opinion nevertheless appears to have gelled around the cheap political conclusions.
Guiding and Controlling Ontario’s Future Water and Wastewater Service
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This study, prepared for the Walkerton Inquiry, promotes user pay and full cost pricing, independent economic regulation, and strengthened environmental law enforcement.
The Promise of Privatization
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This study, prepared for the Walkerton Inquiry, examines the privatization of water and wastewater utilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It reveals that privatization has brought investment, expertise, innovation, efficiency, and accountability to water and wastewater utilities, improving their performance and their compliance with health and environmental standards.
Presentation to the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development
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RJ Smith, from the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, tells Canadian law-makers about the US experience with endangered species legislation: "From a public policy perspective, the US Endangered Species Act has been a failure — a complete and unmitigated disaster. If one had deliberately set out to create a law that would have harmed wildlife, destroyed habitat, and discouraged private landowners from protecting wildlife on their own lands, it would have been difficult to surpass the US Endangered Species Act. The ESA is causing tremendous harm to many of the very species it was designed to protect."
Environment Probe 