We have received word from Council of Canadians BC-Yukon organizer Harjap Grewal that Vancouver has just passed its resolution against bottled water. We will have more details soon on this important vote in Canada’s third-largest city.
The Vancouver Courier had reported yesterday that, “the city’s standing committee on city services and budgets will consider (on April 23) a plan to phase out sales of bottled water at city-owned facilities such as recreation centres, park concession stands and theatres, and to increase the number of drinking fountains…The city’s plan calls for the immediate elimination of single-serving bottled water at council meetings as a symbolic first step. The plan also calls for encouraging the cafeteria at city hall to voluntarily reduce sales of bottled water and for improved maintenance of outdoor drinking fountains to make them more appealing.”
To help secure this win the Council of Canadians issued a joint action alert with the Polaris Institute, which can be read at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=354.
The Council of Canadians also called more than 1,000 of our members in Vancouver asking them to contact their city councilor to encourage them to support the bottled water ban.