Commentary, Opinion

Do we have water to spare?

July 2, 2026   ·   0 Comments

Canada is one of the highest per capita water users in the world. We use more than twice as much as Europeans. We think of Canada as “water-rich.” Twenty percent of the world’s surface freshwater ecosystems are contained in Canada’s rivers, wetlands and Great Lakes. However, only 6.5 per cent of that is renewable water, replaced annually through precipitation and aquifer discharge, and its accessibility varies dramatically by region.  Only 2.6 per cent of the world’s fresh water supply is available to southern Canada, where 85 per cent of the population lives.

The water we do have access to faces multiple threats from pollution, climate change, invasive species, and land-use changes. We can no longer assume our waters are boundless and safe. Floods, wildfires and droughts are escalating, and water quantity and quality are increasingly threatened.

Maude Barlow, co-founder of the Council of Canadians, has long warned that Canada takes its water for granted. She calls it the “myth of abundance,” saying that Canadians have a notion that we love our water – it’s in our history, culture and music – but that we have not taken good care of it.

The Liberal government plans to turn Canada into an energy superpower, including a new pipeline, a dramatic increase in LNG exports, and massive investment in critical minerals and AI data centres. All of these need a lot of freshwater. AI data centres alone are a major threat to water. The average 100-megawatt centre uses 2 million litres per day, the majority of which comes from municipal utilities. The provinces have jumped on the frenzied bandwagon, too. B.C., Alberta, Quebec and Ontario all have plans for AI centres.

Ontario has recently introduced new, extremely worrisome legislation.

According to Environmental Defence, the Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act “opens the door to risky stealth water privatization, threatening the clean, safe water that our communities depend on. This new law gives the Ontario government sweeping powers, including the ability to take control of any municipality’s water system and hand it over to a for-profit corporation — whether the municipality wants it to or not.  

Environmental Defence continued, “A for-profit corporation is designed to prioritize its financial interests, putting public good and environmental protection on the back burner. And unlike public utilities, these corporations are not required to operate transparently.  History has proven that when for-profit businesses are put in charge of public water systems, the results are bigger bills, compromised drinking water and polluted waterways.”

Water isn’t a commodity – it’s a human right. Tell both your MPP and MP that we expect governments to protect our freshwater ecosystems and, in Ontario, to explicitly prohibit private ownership of municipal water systems.

This week’s Community Voice column was written by Louise Montague, a member of Greys for Green in New Tecumseth. She is interested in helping others learn how to make sustainable living the norm. Contact Greys for Green at contactus@greysforgreen.org.

Readers Comments (0)