It has always been my belief that one of the greatest responsibilities of leaders is to protect the people they represent, to act as their watchdog -always on the alert. A watchdog that falls asleep on the job is a failure. But what words can describe the watchdog that fights to let the enemy in?

One of the threats facing communities today is the ambitions of large multinational water corporations to operate water for profit in the context of a world where water shortages are the way of the future, as global freshwater demand is set to outstrip supply by 40 per cent in the next 20 years, and water is rapidly becoming the new gold.

The world's largest water multinationals, such as Suez and Veolia, are based in Europe and their European Union representatives are now negotiating a trade agreement with Canada, called the Canada-European Comprehensive Trade Agreement, that gives them unprecedented access to Canada's water and waste water systems, securing them with investor rights to trump (including suing for lost profits) local government decisions that may negatively affect corporate profit.

This trade deal is expected to be signed in January 2012 and its immediate effect will be to lock in all water and waste water privatizations and make "re-municipalization" or contracting-in virtually impossible. In other words, once you privatize your water services, there is no going back. I encourage everyone to witness Europe's disastrous experiment with water privatization at the hands of these very corporations and the ensuing wave of re-municipalization sweeping the continent, which is welldocumented and told by the mayors and councillors themselves in a new documentary titled Water Makes Money.

The Canadian way has always been to operate our water as a public trust and to keep it in public hands; today, almost all municipalities operate their own quality water and waste water treatment systems with their own highly trained staff.

This is because, historically, public operation of such vital services has been found to be most cost-effective, transparent and accountable to the public since there are no corporate privacy and profit interests involved.

This past weekend, I joined hundreds of local government councillors, mayors, regional district representatives, senior staff officials and many others from coast to coast at a national conference hosted by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in Halifax, N.S. We gathered to share ideas, exchange experiences and get a chance to see new models, ideas and technology that could make our communities better places to live.

At this conference I made myself available to speak with municipal leaders about the common challenges we face and how we can work together to resolve them, and enjoyed countless productive discussions. There was, however, one notable exception.

That exception was Mayor George Peary of Abbotsford. Before a stunned national audience at a Federation workshop, he embarrassed his community and council representatives with an aggressive rant about the organization that represents his own city workers. This rant exhibited disdain for the people who provide Abbotsford's vital civic services as well a profoundly anti-democratic attitude.

How does Peary justify standing up before national municipal leaders to seek support for his desire to "stop CUPE from going to public meetings and speaking into microphones?"

Why would any mayor in a democratic country want to stop his city workers and their organization from expressing their opinion on any matter, let alone a matter of grave public concern, such as the privatization of their water services?

Across Canada, CUPE works constructively with municipal councils to strengthen public services, increase efficiencies, improve service and reduce costs. In fact, Abbotsford's councillors thanked CUPE repeatedly for the research and counsel they provided on the proposed P3 water project after CUPE delivered a research presentation that was centred on helping the council reduce costs and save taxpayers' dollars.

In light of this, how does Peary justify standing up at this national forum and accusing CUPE of telling "lies" and being "ideological" and "irrational" about P3s? His time would be better spent examining himself for these faults.

It is not surprising that he did not find a single supporter in the room. Even the proponents of P3s, who were hosting the event , seemed taken aback by his disrespect for the organization to which his own employees belong.

Municipal leaders, like all elected officials, have a duty to represent and protect their people and their vital public services -not to open the city gates and fight on behalf of the profit interests of multinational water corporations whose yearly revenue alone could meet all of Canada's water infrastructure needs for the next century.

Water is a gift upon which all life depends, not a commodity to be delivered for profit to paying customers. Access to fresh, clean and affordable drinking water is a basic human right that ought to be guaranteed by a watchdog that barks for the people.

Barry O'Neill, CUPE national general vicepresident and president of CUPE British Columbia, represents over half a million public sector workers across the country and 85,000 workers in B.C.