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| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.The Government's Groundwater Grab: An Attack on Property Rights in Quebec
The government of Quebec is proposing to abolish all private property rights to water and to empower regulators to dictate who may use water, how much they may use, and how they may use it. Proponents claim that such measures are necessary to protect the natural resources of the province. But such overzealous regulation offers no guarantee that water will be apportioned wisely. Instead, it promises to politicize every aspect of water use, dissuade industrial investment, and deprive citizens of basic rights.
If enacted, Bill 92 would declare both surface water and groundwater to be part of the common heritage of the Quebec nation and off limits to appropriation except under the conditions defined by law (Bill 92, Quebec, 2008). Currently, surface water is considered to be a public resource, but legal precedent in the province holds that property owners have a claim to the groundwater beneath their land.
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Diane Katz
Diane S. Katz is a Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy with the Heritage Foundation and the former Director of Risk,Environment and Energy Policy for the Fraser Institute. She has more than two decades of experience in research and writing about public policy, including six years as Director of Science, Environment and Technology for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and nine years as a member of The Detroit News editorial board specializing in science and the environment, telecommunications and technology, and the auto industry. Ms. Katz has been awarded several fellowships, including the Jack R. Howard Science Reporting Institute at the California Institute of Technology; the Paul Miller Washington Reporting Program; the Kinship Conservation Institute; and the Political Economy Research Center. She has testified before Congress as well as a number of state legislatures, and was appointed to represent the State Policy Network, a coalition of more than 50 think tanks across the United States, on the American Legislative Exchange Council. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal; The Washington Times; National Review; The Weekly Standard; Reason Magazine and dozens of regional and local newspapers. Ms. Katz graduated with a B.Ph. from Thomas Jefferson College and an M.A. from the University of Michigan.… Read more -
Jean-François Minardi
Jean-François Minardi is the former Associate Director of the Economic Freedom and Development Centre and Associate Director of the GlobalNatural Resource Policy Centre for the Fraser Institute. Jean-François Minardi holds a Masters Degree in Economics and International Projects Management from the Université Paris XII. He has completed his PhD coursework focusing on International Relations at the Université de Montréal, where he also holds a Masters Degree in Political Science. Jean-François joined the Institute in 2008 as a Senior Policy Analyst for Quebec and La Francophonie before he moved to the Center for Globalization Studies in 2009 he managed the Economic Freedom of the World Network. He is the co-author of The Government's Grab Groundwater: An Attack on Property Rights in Quebec and the author of What does the future hold for Quebec agriculture and The Management of Water Services in Montreal. He wrote articles for Fraser Forum and Perspectives and published op-eds for newspapers in Quebec including La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal, Le Soleil, The Gazette and Le Devoir.… Read more