March 8th,2011-Cdn.Water Now Privatized

Canadian Water Resources as the Private Property of Foreign Investors

However, rather than defend public ownership and control of water, the federal government has agreed to settle AbitibiBowater’s claim, and the terms of its Settlement Agreement with the
Company have been recorded in the form of a Consent Award by the NAFTA arbitral tribunal on December 15, 2010.5
The key provision of the Settlement Agreement incorporated to the Consent Order provides as follows:
As consideration for the above-cited final settlement and waiver of any and all legal
action by AbitibiBowater against the Government of Canada arising out of or related to
the Act and/or claims by AbitibiBowater against the Government of Canada relating relating to
the assets and rights cited therein, including those raised in the Notice of Arbitration, the
Government of Canada shall make a payment of $130 million (CAD), following the
constitution of the New Company, representing not more than the fair market value of the
3 These included water rights in relation to Grand Falls, Bishop's Falls, Star Lake, Buchans Charter Lease Section 8,
and even a potential hydroelectric generation at Red Indian Falls (estimated 44MW capacity) and the Badger Chutes
(estimated 22 MW capacity) on Exploits River.
4 These included the following claims: (1) 2000 square miles generally Charter Lease Section 8 comprising the Red
Indian Lake watershed in west-central Newfoundland (2) 1619 hectares in the vicinity of 1907 Lease Section 3, (3)
965,585 hectares at various locations Non-Renewable Licenses in central Newfoundland (4) 111,163 hectares
located in central Private Reid Lots and western Newfoundland, including in particular the Reid Lot 59 lands
(including the Grand Falls Mill, Grand Falls House, the AbitibiBowater Mill Manager's House, the Ambient Air
Monitoring Station, and considerable additional lands suitable for residential and commercial development) (5)
72,782 hectares located in central Crown Reid Lots - 725 hectares comprised of lots on Victoria River.
5 International Centre For Settlement Of Investment Disputes (ICSID), AbitibiBowater Inc. v. Canada, Consent
Award, Dec, 15 2010. http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements accordscommerciaux/
assets/pdfs/