THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that BPW Canada urge the Government of Canada to officially recognize the Great Lakes as an exhaustible natural resource and thus negotiate that they be exempt from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA � Article 2101:1 [b]) or the earlier General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT � Article XX [g] the conservation exception), and hence not classified as a �good�, available for trade.FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that BPW Canada urges the Government of Canada to create common standards with the United States, clearly defining water use and removals policies that are focused on the environmental aspects while coming within GATT/NAFTA general exceptions, utilizing the International Joint Commission to moderate any conflict resolution.FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that BPW Canada urges the Government of Canada to restore the 50% budget funding for Great Lakes monitoring, that was recently cut from Environment Canada.FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that BPW Canada supports the water resolution of 2001 of the Canadian Federation of University Women and works with the CFUW and other organizations, to:� �urge the federal, provincial and territorial governments of Canada to protect our water resources and specifically to declare that water, being a non-renewable natural resource of paramount importance, belongs to the Canadian public and its use must be regulated in the long-term public interest; � �urge the federal, provincial and territorial governments to adopt and implement a sustainable and prudent water management policy to respond to long-term regional needs with due regard to the ecosystem and hydro-geological reality; and � �urge the federal, provincial and territorial governments to promote conservation and more efficient use of surface water and groundwater at individual, local, provincial, territorial, national and international levels.�FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that BPW Canada urges the Government of Canada to work with the provinces to ensure that the standards for bottled water be as stringent as those that apply to municipal water supplies.
