The concern among Canadians about the state of their environment continues to grow. This is despite, and perhaps because of, the serious back-sliding of our federal and provincial governments on key issues. Concerns in Ontario include the state of our water supply, the quality of our air, and the astonishing weather extremes over the past five years, including last summer's severe drought and high temperatures, and our almost winter-less winter. Even the doubters now seem to believe our climate is changing, while the provincial energy ministers continue to bury their heads in the warming sand, and sleepwalk us towards unplanned, unmanaged disaster.

Trent, and indeed the whole of Canada, lost a shining beacon in Peter Gzowski. One of his initiatives at Trent (university chancellors are not expected to take initiatives) was to hold an annual Chancellor's Dialogue open to the public in the Wenjack Theatre at which he moderated a group of experts in dialogue on key issues. His last one, in November 2001, focused on water and asked the questions "Who owns it?" and "Can you trust it?". It was a great success and Peter was in sparkling form.

He was to be part of the Trent follow up, which is a national workshop entitled "Simply Water?" or, as we might be expected to say in Canada, "Simply water eh?". This will take place in Wenjack Theatre, starting 9 a.m. Feb. 18, with a series of talks by outstanding speakers. The plenary talks are open to the public and are part of our Sheperd Family Workshop. The workshop itself then follows on after lunch on Monday, continuing until Wednesday noon. We will discuss and debate a range of challenging and important topics, including the three questions about water: "Who owns it?" "Can you trust it?" and "Is there enough?".

Our societal demands for water are in increasing conflict, ranging from a need for safe drinking water, to ensuring adequate water for agriculture, wildlife, industry, domestic, and recreational use.

Water appears plentiful and cheap to Canadians but water tables have fallen and have been polluted. The Great Lake levels have also fallen significantly and some believe climate change is involved. The post-NAFTA debates have propelled concerns about sales of our water to the USA to the media headlines.

Peterborough, being situated amongst the beautiful Kawartha Lakes and with a history of settlement and development based on the major rivers and canals, has citizens with an unusual awareness of the importance of water. Canoe building, recreational fishing, numerous local swimming holes and cottage developments have taken us from a water-based past to the present day concerns reflected in the workshop. Walkerton and last summer's drought brought the potential for disaster home to us all. At least one of our speakers will argue that water quality and safety has never been better. Others will express quite opposite positions. Can safety and adequacy of supply be ensured by costing water higher than it has been? Do the American's really want our water? Can we manage water so there is plenty for all purposes in the face of climate change and extreme weather patterns? These are some of the questions to be discussed.

David Sheperd, on behalf of his family, gave an endowment to Trent 10 years ago to enable the environmental program to bring in one outstanding speaker each year. This year, to celebrate the 10th anniversary, we have replaced this lecture with a national workshop. We want public involvement in this debate and will produce a workshop position paper recommending policies and policy changes.

Our workshop speakers include scientists, managers, concerned nationalists, municipal water authority experts, climatologists, native leaders, environmentalists, industrial leaders, international experts with long experience in developing countries, and legal experts on water ownership.

The workshop sessions promise to be lively and productive. Details are available at our website www.trentu.ca/wsc or by phone 748-1011 ext 5049. The workshop is a joint initiative of the Environmental & Resource Studies Program at Trent, the Watershed Science Centre, the Native Studies Program, Ministry of Natural Resources, the Munk Centre for International Studies at University of Toronto, and, of course, the Sheperd Family. Please come to the Monday talks or consider attending the entire workshop. Trent, in this project, is again attempting to engage the public in discussions of a key issue - water.