Parksville is a city on Vancouver Island, located about 37 kilometres north-west of Nanaimo.
The Parksville Qualicum Beach News reports, “Parksville may already be on the way to becoming a certified Blue Community. …In light of March 22 being World Water Day, Charna Macfie, president of the Parksville Residents Association gave a presentation to city council urging them to join the national initiative. ‘A blue community is one that adopts a water commons framework by taking three actions,’ said Macfie, presenting on behalf of the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition, Council of Canadians Mid Island Chapter, CUPE Local 401, Oceanside Coalition for Strong Communities, KAIROS and the Arrowsmith Watershed Coalition Society.”
A municipality can become a blue community by:
- recognizing water as a human right;
- promoting publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services; and
- banning the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events.
“‘As far as I’m concerned you’re preaching to the choir’, started Councillor Marc Lefebvre, suggesting the city already informally tries to do the first two and he thought the city already had a bylaw or policy restricting bottled water. …’Since I’ve been on council we’ve always supported public ownership,’ said Coun. Sue Powell… ‘We do recognize water as a human right,’ said Coun. Carrie Powell-Davidson…”
“Council unanimously asked staff to research the three suggested motions and bring options back for their consideration.”
Blue Communities to date include:
- Burnaby, BC (March 22, 2011)
- Victoria, BC (June 24, 2011)
- Tiny Township, ON (September 12, 2011)
- Ajax, ON (December 12, 2011)
For more information on the Blue Communities Project, please go to http://canadians.org/bluecommunities.
