| Posted by Winnipeg Chapter on October 18, 2009 at 10:49 PM |
Meera Karunananthan, the Council of Canadians National Water Campaigner reponds to Winnipeg Free Press article Quantum of suspition. (link no longer available)
“Re: Quantum of suspicion (Oct. 3).Bartley Kives cedes that corporations like Bechtel have had devastatingimpacts on the lives of people whose water supplies they have raided.Yet he fails to acknowledge that what distinguishes a public utility from a private corporation is that a public utility’s main objective isto serve the public interest. This will not be the case once Winnipeg turns its utility into a commercially driven corporation accountable,not to the public, but to an arm’s-length board of directors whose mandate will be to boost profit margins.
In Europe, such utilities have done so by expanding their markets to developing countries, where they have raised rates and denied services to thosewho could not afford to pay. Experience with water utilities around the world shows that it is not about who the shareholders are, it is about whether utilities serve people or whether they serve profit.
MEERA KARUNANANTHAN
Winnipeg”
source: Marketing Water, Letters to the Editor, Winnipeg Free Press, October 13, 2009