The Ontario legislature will be debating Bill 237 on Thursday February 18. If passed, this bill would severely undermine the ability of municipalities to maintain public control over water and wastewater infrastructure.
Water and waste water services would be operated by corporations run by unelected boards of directors who would report to a centralized provincial water board that would be unaccountable to the public. All costs for operations, upgrades and maintenance would be downloaded to Ontario users who will see steep rate hikes as a result of full cost recovery measures promoted by this bill. The infrastructure deficit in Ontario is currently estimated at $37 billion over 15 years.
Please see the Council of Canadians statement on Bill 237: www.canadians.org/water/documents/bill-237-statement.pdf [2]
To send a letter to your MPP go to: http://canadians.org/action/2010/bill-237-feb-10.html [3]
Bill 237 can be read at: http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&Intranet=&Bil... [4]
Links:
[1] http://rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/861
[2] http://www.canadians.org/water/documents/bill-237-statement.pdf
[3] http://canadians.org/action/2010/bill-237-feb-10.html
[4] http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&Intranet=&BillID=2262
[5] http://rabble.ca/user
[6] http://rabble.ca/user/register