The (Nanaimo) Daily News reports, “Confusion reigned at a public meeting Monday as Nanaimo city councillors backtracked on their decision to be a blue community. Nanaimo city council says it mistakenly voted to be a ‘blue community’ in March, agreeing to recognize water as a human right and promote publicly financed, owned and operated water services. The move (would have also meant) banning the sale of bottled water in public facilities, which city staff now endorses.”
“Water advocates called the plan ‘fair’ and a strategy they could be happy with. They expected city council to make a decision on the bottle ban Monday, the last move in becoming a blue community. But in a ‘stunning’ twist, council members decided they didn’t mean to designate the city as a blue community at all. They reversed the decision and called for another report on what it would mean to be a blue community. Coun. McKay wanted to know if there would be any future issues if the city openly declared it supported water as a human right while Coun. George Anderson couldn’t recall making a decision on the issue.”
“Water advocate June Ross shook her head over the change of mind, adding she’s ‘absolutely shocked’. ‘I don’t know where this came from,’ she said. ‘The (blue) concept is really straight forward.'”
The Council of Canadians will work to make Nanaimo a blue community once again. More soon.
The full article is at http://www.canada.com/Council+taking+second+look+blue+community+status/6622344/story.html.
