The C.D. Howe Institute has just released a report entitled A Bridge Over Troubled Waters, which attempts to make the case for water system privatization in Canada. The report claims that the solution to the current water infrastructure deficit is to reduce government funding and increase individual and corporate funding and investment in our municipal water systems.
The report blames our municipalities for the current state of our water system due to what could be described as incompetence and/or their unwillingness to raise water rates. By neglecting to accurately attribute federal and provincial underfunding as the root problem of the municipal water infrastructure deficit, the report only examines solutions to our water deficit that are based on the false assumption that municipalities are unable to manage and operate our facilities. This report has a narrow vision of our potential and the solutions before us.
