Water giants extend their reach

 Calgary’s public water system scores top marks

 Halifax sewage needs public treatment

 Growing corporate concentration

 The problem with commercialization

 Canada’s first sewage system — 162 years old and staying public

 New Zealand water pressure builds

 The Price is Right … in Canada

 Going once, going twice... Health care giants bid for home care...

"The reality of a privately operated sewage plant is startling. We have learned that Philip Utilities Management Corporation operated the plant on the basis of "acceptable risk management." Risk is weighed into the equation of the health and safety of the supply and treatment of drinking water. Pollution, spills, and low reservoir levels all become part of the profit equation for the private operator.

I believe this has no place in our drinking water, the treatment of our sewage or the water our fire department needs to fight fires. Profit should never, ever be a part of the supply and treatment of water. The public deserves a higher standard than acceptable risk management."

Mary Lou Tanner,
City planner, Hamilton, ON, CUPE 167

"We are here to make money. Sooner or later the company that invests recoups its investment, which means the customer pays for it."
Casablanca Director of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, justifying drinking water price hikes of 10-15 per cent and sewage rate increases of 60 per cent.

Halifax sewage needs public treatment

The more than 43 billion litres of raw sewage that gets dumped in Halifax Harbour may soon get the treatment it deserves — if municipal council makes sure it’s public treatment. After hundreds of years with little wastewater treatment, the city is gearing up to address what has become an environmental nightmare by building a comprehensive network of wastewater treatment plants and pipelines.

Despite the model of Halifax’s highly successful publicly-owned drinking water utility, council wants to enter into a public private partnership to build the plants, which will cost more than $316 million. The municipality has chosen a short-sighted solution to a very serious problem.

Three water giants, each with their own ‘home-grown’ consortium, are in the running for the plants. Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, British water company Thames International and French water corporation Le Groupe Bouyges-SAUR-Aquatech are all bidding, despite their less-than-ideal track records when it comes to environmental protection, business corruption and price increases.

Meanwhile, Halifax’s public Water Commission provides top-quality drinking water with low water rates — and still turns a profit. Despite this record, municipal council prevented the commission from bidding to run the new plants, effectively ruling out any public options. The decision to exclude the plant was based on the potential for conflict of interest when city councillors, several of whom sit on the commission’s board, had to select a winning bid. However, that situation could have been avoided if the city had resolved to keep the wastewater plants in public hands from the start, avoiding a lengthy and costly bidding process.

"We run one of the top water utilities in Canada," says Halifax water worker Dave Corbin, a member of CUPE 227. "We run way above minimum quality guidelines all the time. We also do a continuous monitoring for leaks and fix them right away so there’s no waste. We’re efficient and well-run."

If a private water company gets its foot in the door with the city’s wastewater, there is a very real danger the city could lose control of its drinking water as well. And evidence from private sewage treatment schemes, including Hamilton, Ontario’s private wastewater disaster, shows the problems that will follow private control of the sewage plants.

"The harbour needs to be cleaned. The treatment plants are needed, no doubt about it. But it should be done by the public. We have the staff who can do the billing and run the plants. The only thing left to do is build them. The public should own and control those plants, not a private company with no accountability," says Corbin.

"There was no discussion of public financing and ownership of the plants. The public needs to know these private companies are here for one reason alone — to cash in on our water."

Halifax is a clear example of the urgent need for federal assistance to stop any further environmental destruction. A federal infrastructure fund for water systems would eliminate the urge to gamble with public private partnerships, keeping control of water in public hands.