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Water - Tay River

January 18, 2004 OTTAWA - The Ontario government has cancelled the controversial water-taking permit issued by the province’s previous Conservative government to OMYA Canada. In its place, it has approved a new permit restricting the volume of water that may be taken from the Tay River by OMYA for the next six years.

The permit issued by the previous government had authorized OMYA Canada, part of the transnational Omya Group based in Switzerland, to triple their water takings from 1,500 cubic metres to 4,500 cubic metres (or 4.5 million litres) per day. This unpopular decision overturned the recommendations of an Environmental Review Tribunal and ignored the concerns of the local citizens.

Over the past four years, The Council of Canadians has been working with the citizens of Perth, the town through which the Tay River flows, along with others to ensure that local concerns were heard, to profile the need for a comprehensive national water policy (which would ban all bulk exports of Canadian water), and to assert water as a human right and public trust.

While it is unclear at this time whether or not OMYA will appeal the decision limiting their water takings from the Tay River, the announcement by the new Ontario government has been welcomed by Perth and area citizens.

The Council of Canadians wishes to thank everyone for their support and commitment to this issue. We have received thousands of letters and petitions from people across Canada, and these expressions of citizen involvement and concern were crucial to this important victory.

• A Victory for The Tay River - By Sara Ehrhardt
  Reprinted from the Spring 2004 issue of Canadian Perspectives

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updated November 4, 2006