The CanWest News Service is reporting this afternoon that, “Councillors from Toronto and London, Ont., will meet with representatives of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities this weekend at a meeting in British Columbia to urge members to vote in favour of phasing out bottled water in all Canadian municipalities.”
THE RESOLUTION IS EXPECTED TO PASS
The CanWest article notes, “According to the Council of Canadians, 27 municipalities across the country are currently phasing out or restricting the sale and purchase of bottled water in municipal buildings and at city events. The council, which lobbies governments to ensure water is a human right that should be free to all people, is confident all Canadian municipalities will follow suit.”
The article then highlights that, “’The word is, there is strong likelihood it will pass,’ said spokeswoman Meera Karunananthan. ‘Canada offers the best drinking water in the world, and our municipalities are dealing with a waste-management crisis, so this is also a way to deal with that crisis.’”
LONDON CHAPTER
The London chapter of the Council of Canadians was instrumental in getting this resolution to the FCM for their consideration. Council of Canadians chapter activists and allies have been key in winning bottled water resolutions in municipalities across Canada, and a win at the FCM on Saturday would be an outcome of the momentum of that great work.
COUNCIL LETTER TO ALL FCM BOARD MEMBERS
In advance of this vote, the Council of Canadians has written to all FCM Board members encouraging them to support this resolution. We will have that letter posted to our website shortly.
WEB-LINKS
To read the full CanWest News Service report, please go to http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Bottled+water+urged+Canadian+municipalities/1357627/story.html.
To read more about the Council of Canadians ‘Unbottle it!’ campaign, please go to http://canadians.org/water/issues/Unbottle_It/index.html.
To read our media release from today, please go to http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2009/05/c6292.html.
