Guelph on the forefront of demanding provincial action
Guelph City Council held a Committee of the Whole special meeting on the subject of provincial permits to take water on Mon, Nov. 7. The marathon meeting lasted over five hours, wrapping up after midnight.
Preceding the meeting, a group of concerned citizens and activists gathered in front of City Hall. The rally was organized in opposition to the Nestlé Corporation’s recent applications to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to increase their total water takings in the surrounding area to 4.7 million litres per day for commercial sale.
The special meeting was sparked by city councillor James Gordon’s September motion that the City of Guelph officially request the province to deny Nestlé’s permit renewal. The motion was met with support from numerous Guelph residents as well as grassroots organizations including the Wellington Water Watchers and the Council of Canadians.
A week prior to the meeting, a report by Guelph city staff concluded that Nestlé’s Aberfoyle water-taking does not currently affect the city’s water supply—but that could change. The report presented at the meeting also found that a significant risk to Guelph’s water supply would exist under a severe drought scenario if the City’s growth targets are met in the year 2038.
[media-credit name=”Alex Harris” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
After the report was presented, City Council heard from over 30 delegations. Nestlé’s argument to continue their bottling operations in Aberfoyle centered on the fact that their water-taking represents a mere 0.6 per cent of all water-taking in the Grand River Watershed. The corporation, who sent a bus of about 40 bottling plant employees to attend the council meeting, also argued that they are simply filling an ever-increasing demand for their product in Canada.
“We are a company that provides Canadians with a healthy beverage choice,” said Debbie Moore, president of Nestlé Waters Canada, at the Nov. 7 meeting. “We fully support Ontario’s moratorium on new permits to take water. We see this as an opportunity for dialogue.”
Jim Goetz, a spokesperson for the Canadian Beverage Association, hinted that the industry would be open to extraction price increases.
Jennifer Nikolasevic, regional planning manager at Nestlé Waters, said, “There are hundreds of examples where we, as employees, feel like we can’t wear our uniform into the grocery store in fear of confrontation.” This resulted in a formal apology from city councillor Phil Allt.
Ontario’s Permit To Take Water (PPTW) system currently runs on a first come, first served basis. Guelph’s Green Party of Ontario representative Mike Schreiner called this a fundamental problem with the system.
“Provincial law must guarantee that drinking water for people and communities will have priority over all other users,” Schreiner said. “Water taking fees should be raised to cover the full cost of administering, planning and managing water resources.”
[media-credit name=”Alex Harris” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
Mike Nagy, current chair of Wellington Water Watchers was also a speaking delegate.
“This is a completely avoidable industry,” Nagy said. “We have to take care of this now. We are long-term thinkers. We want to be part of an innovative modern economy, and it is not innovative, creative, or modern to be taking water out of the ground and putting it in a piece of plastic and distributing it around the world.”
The Wellington Water Watchers’ work was influential in leading up to the Oct. 17 moratorium on new permits to take water for commercial sale, enacted by the Ontario government.
Guelph City Council will reopen the issue again on Nov. 28. The Ontario government is currently seeking public comment on the general issue of water-taking for commercial sale.