From EDITOR:

As most of you know, Nanaimo's watershed is owned by Island Timberlands. With our water forum planning well underway, the chairperson of VIWWC went to Island Timberlands seeking approval for a tour of OUR watershed. Approval was denied unless we were prepared to allow Island Timberlands to conduct the tour. We were not prepared to have the water tour done in this manner, so we made a decision, as a group to go to City Council about the denial.
The following is the presentation we made on April 26th;

PRESENTATION TO NANIMO MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL

April 26th, 2010


Greetings to each of you and thank you for allowing us time on your agenda to speak with you about a problem we are having. Before we start into the problem we think it is important for you to know who we are.

I am here to speak with you on behalf of the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition. Vancouver Island Water Watch (VIWW) was founded by a small group of concerned citizens in the mid Vancouver Island area in 2005 due to a concerted effort to privatize community water systems on Vancouver Island by profit seeking out of Province and out of Country Corporations. The need to provide the public with accurate information regarding harm caused through privatization schemes targeting our public resources was great and VIWW was founded as a result.

Vancouver Island Water Watch is a non-partisan multi-community organization that has expanded to include groups in every region of Vancouver Island. These regional groups are composed of individuals, ecumenical organizations, environmental organizations, businesses, social justice activists and organizations, anti poverty organizations, Unions, retired workers and other community groups. We coordinate activities with independent local and regional Coalitions who actively promote the protection of community water/wastewater systems, community watersheds and the environment from which this precious resource originates. Citizens need to make informed decisions regarding their community's most valuable resource, water.

Our goal is to inform citizens of the dangers of privatizing our water and the watersheds that sustain our communities. We believe that a well informed public will make the right choices for themselves, the communities they live in and the generations who follow.

No senior level of Government appeared willing or interested in protecting the public interest, in fact it appeared that Government was endorsing and even helping privateers justify the benefits of privatization through the public funding of agencies such as Partnerships B.C.

Nanaimo Council members have always made it clear with their votes at various Boards and meetings that water and wastewater are public services. However, elsewhere Government at all levels appeared unwilling or unable to provide the public with what we believe is accurate information regarding the loss of control over community infrastructure, lower quality services, additional costs to taxpayers, damaged environments or information regarding the hundreds of failures that privatization schemes are responsible for around the world.

Water is a human right and must not be sold as a commodity. Nor is water just for human consumption, it sustains all life and we citizens must guard against those who would use profit as a means to control our environment and our communities. Ownership and Control of water/wastewater must be kept within the public domain and protected by all of us in order to ensure continued sustainability of our communities, environment and all life. Anything less and we will have failed the generations which follow us.

Now you know a little about our group, I will explain the problem. We are hosting a two day public forum in Nanaimo on May 29th and May 30th, 2010. We have superb speakers coming to this forum along with superb workshop presenters. Our Speakers are Maude Barlow from the Council of Canadians, Rafe Mair and Corky Evans and Arthur Caldicott. All of these individuals will be with us at Beban Park on May 30th. As you know Maude Barlow is known world wide as a leader/activist on the rights of human beings to water. I’m sure she will be most interested in our dilemma.

On May 29th we are conducting water tours from Bowen Park Complex. We have permission from the City to tour our water facilities in Nanaimo and we wanted to do the second half of the tour up into the Nanaimo Watershed. The buses we are hiring were hopefully to be manned by City Employees; we were in the process of arranging this with staff. We would follow the direction of staff during the tour so as to keep the watershed safe. We are willing to pay the employees for their time because we believe they are the ones who truly know both the watershed and the in town facilities. For those who do not know, Island Timberlands owns our Watershed. PROBLEM…Unless we are prepared to accept specific conditions, Island Timberlands has denied us access into our watershed. Island Timberlands has stated they want their own people to conduct the tour. This is not acceptable to us. Our intent was to provide a non-partisan information tour for any citizen who wants to see where their drinking water comes from. It was not to provide a platform for Island Timberlands to promote itself as a good corporate citizen.

One of our members spoke with a Staff member, only to be told that staff is in support of Island Timberlands position! We were astounded to say the least! One of the questions that were asked of this staff member was; “If Island Timberlands can refuse our group, many of who will be citizens of this community, access to the watershed, can they also refuse the City access?” the answer was to the effect “…we have a cooperative agreement with island Timberlands”. That did not answer the question at all! If there is some kind of agreement in written form between the City and Island Timberlands, we request a copy of this agreement and would ask that you ensure we receive it.
We would also ask Council to find out whether, legally, Island Timberlands could deny the City access to the watershed.

Another question was asked; “…Our City water pipes go through private land. Do we have a legal right of way that is shown on the land title of these lands?” The response….” I don’t know, but that is a good question”! This is an important issue and we’d ask for clarification. We believe Council needs to pursue these answers and we encourage you to do so, on behalf of the citizens of Nanaimo.

There is one more question we’d like to ask of you. In January, 2007 a Water Supply Strategic Plan was done for the City by Associated Engineering. Under 5.6 of this document, one of the recommendations was for the City to review scenarios for long-term tenure of the watershed. This recommendation included assuming ownership of our watershed. What has staff done about this recommendation? Has any report been done as was suggested within this point of the document? If a report has been done, we request a copy of it as well.

We understood from the city’s web page and conversation with city staff that the watershed was cooperatively run by Island Timberlands and the City. If this is truly the case, we are requesting that you speak with Island Timberlands to seek agreement for our tour to go ahead.

Our group is paying for this entire Forum at no charge to any of the attendees and it is our position that we are not willing to be used as a promotional opportunity for Island Timberlands. The success of these tours will in large part be based on our ability to provide unbiased factual information, we do not believe this possible if Island Timberlands operates the tour and only provides the corporate line. This is not the intent of our tour. The tour is to provide unbiased/factual information to the general public about their water...to teach about the importance of water, the importance of public ownership of water and wastewater, its supply and provision and the importance of conservation of water.

I am here today on behalf of VIWWC to ask Council, will you speak with Island Timberlands and ask them to allow our group to conduct our tour in our format? Because to do otherwise appears to be an attempt to control, not inform.

We will also await your response on our other questions. Thank you for listening and for your anticipated assistance.

June Ross
VIWWC
www.vancouverislandwaterwatchcoalition.ca