The Northumberland chapter meets with Liberal MPP Lou Rinaldi, Jan. 11, 2017
The Council of Canadians Northumberland chapter met with Liberal MPP Lou Rinaldi on January 11 to ask him to support a permanent moratorium on single-use bottled water takings in Ontario.
Chapter activist Faye McFarlane told him, “We believe that water is for life, not for profit. We must protect our water as a commons. It is not a commodity to be bought and sold on the world market.”
Northumberland Today now reports, “Rinaldi recently met with the Northumberland Chapter of the Council of Canadians who pressed for a moratorium on single-use bottles of water and there are two such operations in this area: north of Baltimore, and another near Grafton. ‘They have done a lot of work on this’, Rinaldi said, referencing the issues raised by the local Council of Canadians presenters who came to his office. They cited concern with the large water taker in Ontario, Nestle, and the two local bottling operations.”
The article adds, “Rinaldi said he has asked the local Council of Canadian members to put their suggestions about water taking by bottling companies on paper, and he will deliver them to the Minister of the Environment Glen Murray. Rinaldi declined to comment on the two local water-bottling operations, suggesting that proposed changes are part of a ‘province-wide strategy’.”
Unfortunately, Rinaldi argues that a proposed fee of $503.71 per million litres would generate revenue that could be used to address monitoring and enforcement “so we can protect our natural resources”.
The Council of Canadians has highlighted that this proposed fee would equal just .025 cents for a half litre bottle of water that sells for more than a dollar in stores, which is likely why Nestle so quickly agreed to the proposed fee. Ontario organizer Mark Calzavara has been quoted by the Canadian Press stating, “Bottled water is a frivolous and wasteful use of a precious resource. Charging higher fees won’t replace the water that is removed from the aquifer and shipped out of the watershed.”
The Ontario government’s 60-day comment period on renewing permits for existing bottled water operations ends on January 31. To date, we have helped generate 4,849 submissions to the government calling on it to:
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require Nestlé to sell the Middlebrook well to the Township of Centre Wellington who need it for their drinking water -
implement a permanent moratorium on new permits for single-use bottled water facilities -
phase out current permits for such facilities -
prioritize community use over corporate interests for water resources in Ontario -
seek the free, prior and informed consent of affected Indigenous peoples.
Please keep the pressure up on these demands by responding to this online action alert before the end of the month.
