Councillor Aidan Johnson (Samantha Craggs/CBC)
The Council of Canadians Hamilton chapter will be presenting to their City’s Board of Health on Thursday (April 20) in support of a proposed ban on local groundwater extraction for non-agricultural commercial activity.
The chapter will be speaking in favour of Councillor Aidan Johnson’s motion on this.
At a meeting of the City’s General Issues Committee on February 1, Johnson introduced a motion to request staff to study and report to the Board of Health on water-taking by water bottling facilities.
That motion included the request that, “the report include the feasibility of a permanent ban on water-taking by water bottling facilities (commercial, not agricultural or residential water-taking) within the geographical area of the City of Hamilton.”
That motion can be read in full here.
The chapter will highlight, “Council of Canadians supporters have made more than 20,000 submissions to the provincial government asking for a permanent moratorium on new Permits To Take Water for single-use bottled water and for a phase-out of the current permits for this wasteful and frivolous product.”
Father Edward Mahony will also be speaking on the proposed ban at the Board of Health meeting.
The Hamilton Spectator has reported, “Father Mahony has made it his mission to fight against bottled water. The local priest, who banned one-time-use plastic bottles at Corpus Christi Catholic Church on Upper James Street when he arrived at the parish four and a half years ago, said he tries to educate people buying cases of water at grocery stores. He has expanded his scope more recently, having helped spearhead action within the Diocese of Hamilton and the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. His next goal? Enacting change at the national level in all Canadian Catholic dioceses.”
That article highlights, “He started fighting back more actively after joining the Council of Canadians about four years ago, gaining access to more information on the subject.”
Council of Canadians water campaigner Emma Lui spoke with Father Mahony in September 2016 and encouraged him to attend Maude Barlow’s upcoming talk on bottled water in Guelph (which he did) where Barlow announced our campaign to boycott Nestle. 51,840 people have now pledged to boycott Nestle products. Lui also talked with Father Mahony about the World Council of Churches becoming a blue community.
In addition, this past December the Hamilton Spectator reported, “Johnson will ask his colleagues to support a study on the implications of preventing bottled water sales at arenas, parks and other city facilities. Council previously considered but rejected such a proposal in 2010, not long after the City of London, Ont. made headlines by banning bottled water sales in municipal buildings. Johnson said his intent is to pump up the use of taxpayer-funded treated water and help preserve fresh water reserves viewed by some environmentalists as increasingly under threat.”
