Just over a week ago, the federal Conservative government was defeated in the House of Commons. The majority of the House made an historic vote. For the first time in any Parliament in the world, a government was found in contempt for not revealing its spending decisions on a specific matter. Canada made history that day, but not for anything that we should be proud of.
Now into a federal election, we must take the opportunity to ask those running to be our representatives what they will do on the issues that matter to us. One issue that matters to every single living being on this planet is water. Here in the Kootenays we have some of the most abundant fresh water resources in the world, and as I have learned in my role as your provincial representative, water is a big issue for us.
On March 22, it was World Water Day. Started in 1993 by the United Nations, World Water Day has helped to increase awareness about local and global water issues. Water connects us all, so making the global and local connections is important. But another connection that needs to be made is urban and rural.
In bringing our local water issues to an urban audience on World Water Day, I helped make that urban and rural connection. While hosting my special online talk show Women and Water, I connected the Vancouver audience who have 70 per cent of B.C.’s hydroelectric demand with the fact that it is us in the Kootenays producing the electricity.
Yup, we produce 50 per cent of B.C.’s hydroelectricity, but are only using 12 per cent, so that means we send our power down to Vancouver, where it lands on the doorsteps of apartment elevators.
Suddenly, our water issues became Vancouver’s water issues. Light bulbs turned on.
As I spoke with my four guests about our Kootenay water issues and how to take positive action for conserving and protecting water resources, we kept coming back to the importance of engaging politicians during and in between elections. And of course that meant we kept highlighting the importance of voting.
“Water issues are extremely important at the federal level,” said my guest Gwen Barlee in response to a question from the audience. How do free trade agreements like NAFTA and CETA impact our access to water? The case with Abitibibowater in Newfoundland is a good example that big corporations win instead of the public when it comes to water, so we need to know whether this is going to be typical or not.
Water will also be important in other elections this year. Local governments will be going to the polls this fall, and I might be headed to the polls as well with a provincial election. Each level of government deals with some aspect of water, so ask your questions and vote.
At the Women and Water talk show, we concluded that we have a lot of power to protect our water resources. In our top ten things we can do, number one was “write your elected representative.” At election time, that becomes “vote.” Learn more about water issues by following my online talk show or downloading podcasts at womenandwaterforum.ca. After all, we are what we drink.
Michelle Mungall is the Nelson-Creston MLA. Her column is featured once a month in the Nelson Star