Councillor Amy McQuaid-England
The Council of Canadians supports the efforts of Councillor Amy McQuaid-England to have Oshawa recognized as a blue community.
The Oshawa Express reports, “At a recent meeting of the Corporate Services committee, councillors asked staff to look into their options for eliminating bottled water in city facilities and from municipal events. The motion, brought forward by Councillor Amy McQuaid-England, would complete a trio of criteria in order for Oshawa to be considered for designation as a Blue Community.”
It’s unclear, but the implication from the article is that the City of Oshawa has already endorsed the two other principles of becoming a blue community – recognizing the human right to water and promoting publicly financed, owned and operated water and waste water services.
The article notes, “There is no indication as to when staff would be reporting back to city council on this matter.”
This recent development has a history.
In February 2013, the Oshawa Environmental Advisory Committee recommended that City Council direct City staff to 1) review the implications of the blue communities initiative for the municipality and 2) that City staff be directed to investigate options to reduce the use of bottled water.
Following that motion, Nestle’s director of corporate affairs John Challinor made a deputation to the City’s Development Services Committee on March 25, 2013 in opposition to the City investigating ways to reduce the use of bottled water.
Councillor McQuaid-England disagreed with Challinor at that meeting.
The first part of the motion passed (to review the implications of blue community designation), but the second motion was voted down (to investigate ways to reduce the use of bottled water).
If you live in Oshawa and want to let your city councillor know that you support a blue community designation, you can find their contact information here.
To read more about our blue communities campaign, please click here.
