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 The SPP and waterBulk exports and the “joint optimum utilization of the available water”

It’s no secret that the U.S. is going to need water… It’s no secret that Canada is going to have an overabun-

dance of water. At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements.

~ North American Future 2025 Project Leader Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, April 2007

There is very little mention of water in publicly available Security and Prosperity Partnership documents be-

yond plans to “combat invasive alien species” in the Great Lakes, and to create an online portal for sharing

information on water management in each country. But we know from several leaked documents from U.S.

groups like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies that bulkwater exports and other contentious issues related to water management have been discussed in trilateral

talks linked to the SPP.

Water: A “long term goal” of deep integrationIn May 2005, the Council on Foreign Relations, Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) and Consejo

Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales released a nal version of Building a North American Community — a

report of the Task Force on the Future of North America. While commending North America’s three leaders

for initiating the SPP two months earlier, the task force, which was co-chaired by John Manley and vice-

chaired by Thomas d’Aquino of the CCCE, promoted a much broader vision for North America that included

a common security perimeter and a common economic zone by 2010.

Missing from the nal report of May 2005, but clearly still “on the table,” was the issue of bulk water exports

to the United States.

“No item – not Canadian water, not Mexican oil, not American anti-dumping laws – is ‘off the table’; rather,

contentious or intractable issues will simply require more time to ripen politically,” claimed a leaked summary

of a 2005 task force meeting in Toronto. Task force members also considered, “crafting a North American

‘resource pact’ that would allow for greater intra-regional trade and investment in certain non-renewable

natural resources, such as oil, gas, and fresh water.”

Building a North American Community is not simply the product of an ambitious think tank. The Council on

Foreign Relations carries enormous inuence in Washington. Similarly, the CCCE has been the driving force

behind the SPP in Canada. Thomas d’Aquino regularly attends Security and Prosperity Partnership meet-ings and has direct input into the integration process through his access to the North American Competitive-

ness Council, which is housed within the CCCE. If he is discussing bulk water exports with his American

counterparts then clearly the issue is very much “on the table.”

A future for bulk water exports?As if one, huge trilateral task force on North American integration wasn’t enough, in March 2006 the govern-

ments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico launched the North American Future 2025 Project, “to help guide the

ongoing Security and Prosperity Partnership,” according to an April 13, 2007 article in the Ottawa Citizen.

The project is an initiative of the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in collaboration

with the Conference Board of Canada and Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE).

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 Are you concerned about the SPP? Visit www.canadians.org, or phone us at

1-800-387-7177, for more information on what you can do to ght deep integration.

According to leaked documents acquired by the Council of Canadians, CSIS has been holding a series of closed-door 

meetings with business leaders, government ofcials and selected academics in order to “strengthen the capacity of 

Canadian, U.S., and Mexican administration ofcials and that of their respective legislatures to analyze, comprehend,

and anticipate North American integration.” A roundtable on the “Future of the North American Environment,” whichtook place April 27, 2007 in Calgary, discussed “water consumption, water transfers and articial diversions of bulk

water,” with the aim of achieving “joint optimum utilization of the available [North American] water.”

The North American Future 2025 Project is proof that the idea of bulk water exports is being discussed in the context

of continental integration. It assumes that water will be pumped south from Canada into the United States, and that

the SPP is the proper venue for making such decisions. A nal report from the CSIS project will be tabled to SPP

leaders at the next summit in Montebello, Quebec.

Multi-modal corridors and water pipelinesThe Trans Texas Corridor has been called “the largest engineering project ever proposed” for George Bush’s home

state. At its widest, the “multi-modal” transit corridor will be four football elds wide and include lanes for cars, trains

and trucks headed from the Mexican coast through Texas and into America’s heartland. But the track doesn’t end

there. Through public-private consortia like the North American Super Corridor Coalition, which counts the province

of Manitoba as a proud participant, plans are underway to extend this Texas pet-project right up past the Canadian

border to an expanded port in Churchill.

This proposed mega-highway has been dubbed the “NAFTA Superhighway” because it is designed to speed up the

ow of goods between the three signatory countries. But “multimodal” doesn’t just mean train, truck and car lanes. It

also means pipelines.

“Texas proposes to build a new type of transportation system, a network of wide corridors designed to move people

and goods faster and more safely than ever before,” says a Trans Texas Corridor Document from 2002. “Beyond that,

the corridor will feature a wide utility zone for the transmission of oil, natural gas, electricity, data and a substancecritical to the future of the state – water.”

Opponents of the corridor plan in Texas worry the pipelines will be used to carry Texan water south to Mexico in return

for oil. But considering the looming crisis in Texas, and the fact that bulk water exports are now being discussed as

part of the North American Future 2025 Project for continental integration, it is possible that the pipelines will be used

to carry Canadian water. “A lot of people don’t need it, but when you head south and west, we need it,” said George

W. Bush, six months into his term, at a joint press conference with former prime minister Jean Chrétien. “Some have

suggested abandoned pipelines that used to carry energy. That’s a possibility. I would be open to any discussion.”