By: Kathryn-Jane Hazel, Steering Committee, London Chapter, Council of Canadians
By the time this article is published, London's water services may already be privatized.
Whoa, you are probably saying - when did this happen? That's a question many concerned citizens have been have been trying to answer in the last few weeks, as they scramble to keep up with the latest developments in this privatization process.
Just a month ago, delegates from the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians at the CoC's water conference in Vancouver were astounded to learn that London's water system was up for grabs. When we started looking into the issue, alarm bells began to ring. We found out that not only was the privatization plan under way, but that tenders had been posted already, with one public agency and three water corporations among the bidders. In addition, the preferred company was to be selected for negotiations in August, and the contract awarded in September by the Joint Boards of Management that govern both the Lake Huron and Elgin Area water systems which supply London's water.
The choice of the preferred company was to be made by a selection committee, which included members from the London City administration and a representative from both Joint Management Boards, assisted by three consulting firms. There were no plans for public consultation, and with only two columns in the Free Press and some information buried on the city's website about the bids, little had been done to alert the public to the fact that this was taking place.
For the past eight years, London's water has been publicly owned and operated by the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA). Under legislation passed by the Harris government in 1997, responsibility for water systems was downloaded to the municipalities. London chose to set up the joint management boards, and then obtain a qualified operator through a competitive bidding process.
OCWA was up against such corporate heavy-hitters as Azurix North America, a subsidiart of Enron (USA), whose 1998 revenues were $29.35 billion; US Filter Canada, a subsidiary of Vivendi (France), whose total profits in that year were over a billion dollars; and US Water and United Utilities Canada. United Utilities Canada is a subsidiary of United Utilities PLC in the UK, which had revenues in 1999 of $1.37 billion. North West Water, a subsidiary of United Utilities, has upped its water rates by 43.2% since privatization in the UK. US Water is a joint venture between United Utilities PLC (UK) and Bechtel - which is suing Bolivia because the city of Cochabamba there refused to give the company a permit after water rates were hiked dramatically and local citizens protested.
OCWA has managed our city's water system well. It is the largest operator of water and wastewater services to Ontario municipalities. Unlike private corporations, it does not need to make a profit - and profits can only come from either Londoner's pockets through increased water rates, or a reduced level of services.
Hopefully OCWA's excellent record of water management as operator of 429 water and wastewater treatment facilities for more than 200 municipalities in this province will have made it the main contender for London - and we will have a water system that is still accountable to all our citizens.