The Veolia Files – A People of Interest Special hosted by Michael Welch
On Monday, October 25th CKUW 95.5 FM aired “The Veolia Files – A People of Interest Special” radio show to give people information on what Veolia’s track record is and what might be in store for Winnipeg’s future with this huge multi-national corporation. It’s chilling to hear the similarities between the stories of these Veolia victim cities and what’s panning out in Winnipeg.
“There are a lot of loopholes in the contract that Veolia will put in there… I don’t necessarily blame Veolia. I mean their main reason to be there is to make a profit. They’re there to benefit. They’re beholden to their shareholders. They’re not beholden to the citizens.”
Jason Myers – Resident/Citizen Activist based in Richmond, CA.
“It’s funny, since Veolia has taken over a few months ago… these same people that they said were unqualified, they absorbed into the Veolia system and they’re running this plant the same as they were long before Veolia was ever on the scene. It’s funny, you know, new employees became experts, and that was just with the stroke of a pen, when they changed their uniform logo from Novato Sanitary District to Veolia they just all of a sudden became experts. That whole thing about being unqualified, that just doesn’t hold.”
Dennis Welsh – Retired Wastewater Manager – Novato, CA.
“So they tried to put the blame on the region… They actually closed the plant (waste-water treatment plant) for 10 days in December 2009, in an attempt to raise the stakes. You could call that environmental blackmail really. And so the end of the story is that basically Veolia is trying to have the region pay for the development of it’s own technology that it will then be able to sell elsewhere.”
Martin Pigeon – Researcher with Corporate Europe Observatory – Brussels, Belgium
“We’ve gone from having a water system that was worth some value in 2002 to having a water system in disrepair and billions of dollars in debt.”
Kerwin Olson – Consumer advocate based in Indianapolis, IN.
Please listen to the archived radio show click here