CFI at the 69th Annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities Conference

June 1, 2006

The CFI hosts an interactive panel discussion that brings together experts from across Canada at the 69th Annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities Conference in Montreal, Québec.

Moderator: Eliot Phillipson, President & CEO, CFI

Panelists:
John F. Cigana, École polytechnique de Montréal
P. Jeff Curtis, The University of British Columbia Okanagan
George Nakhla, The University of Western Ontario

The life-giving resource of water. We drink it. We bathe in it. We travel on it. We draw power from it. It makes up two-thirds of our bodies. Almost three-quarters of our planet is covered by it. It nourishes and sustains us. And without it, life as we know it would not exist.

Approximately 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water, and another 2.4 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. In Canada, water is part of our national identity, and is an essential component of our economy. Our Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh, surface water on Earth, representing about 18 percent of the world supply.