Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and E4A Advisory Board member, recently published an important booklet that exposes how Canada’s trade agreements put one of Canada’s natural treasures – its vast water resources – at great risk. Water for Sale: How Free Trade and Investment Agreements Threaten Environmental Protection of Water and Promote the Commodification of the World’s Water (Council of Canadians, April 2017) sets out in detail how commitments in the trade and investment agreements that Canada is already a party to (e.g. NAFTA and CETA) or is seeking to put in place (e.g. the TPP – which may survive even without US participation) can lead to privatization of water and limit the ability of federal, provincial and local authorities to protect this vital shared resource. In E4A, questions about how we can make sure that, from the local to the global scale, water can sustain humanity and the community of life of which we are a part in perpetuity was deemed so essential that it was the overarching theme of E4A’s first year. Water for Sale is a succinct, cogent and rigorous exposé that will surely be of interest to the entire E4A community and the growing number of networks to which E4A is linked.
Categories: Uncategorized