Discussing the new legislation act and its consequences
Since the introduction of Bill 18, public outcry and large amounts of criticism have been directed towards the Water Sustainability Act, recently announced by the B.C. government. Set to come into effect in 2016, the Water Sustainability Act is a newly crafted piece of legislation which aims to increase the productivity and effectiveness of water regulation and safety across the province of British Columbia. Bill 18 was first introduced in 2014, in order to replace the current standing legislation which is more than a hundred years old. The B.C. Ministry of the Environment is setting out to establish and cultivate sustainable practices and regulations which will redefine core tenets of water and resource utilization, with a priority placed upon authorization and management of groundwater.
“The new Water Sustainability Act delivers on government’s commitments to modernize B.C.’s water laws, regulate groundwater use and strengthen provincial water management in light of growing demands for water and a changing climate,” said Mary Polak, B.C.’s Minister of Environment in a news release posted on the B.C government website. “Water is our most precious resource and the proposed Water Sustainability Act will ensure that our supply of clean fresh water is sustainable – to meet our needs today and for generations to come.”
With the Water Sustainability Act coming into effect in January 2016, a corporation can purchase the amount of water needed to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool for approximately $6.00.
While the Water Sustainability Act attempts to establish new legislation to fit modern needs, the criticism placed upon Bill 18 is founded upon the pricing for groundwater. The Water Sustainability Act allows the government to deal with, and access, surface and groundwater in new ways, creating mass tension between the relationship of the B.C. government and the corporation who are purchasing these vital resources.
“Under the new Act, government will manage surface and groundwater as one resource. Decision makers will have a broader suite of tools to help make more informed decisions. Water users will have greater certainty and security of their water rights and there will be clearer rules for managing water during times of scarcity,” said the B.C. government in a recent news release.
Before the announcement of the new legislation, corporations did not have to pay for groundwater at all – the old Water Act did not account for groundwater as a legitimate resource. If the Water Sustainability Act now forces corporations to pay a fee instead of obtaining free groundwater, then what is all the criticism and public outcry aimed towards? While the legislation can be seen as a step forward, the changes being implemented, specifically towards the pricing of groundwater, remains absurdly miniscule.
For every million litres of groundwater extracted, the B.C. government is charging corporations $2.25 – an insanely low price considering the amount of water being discussed. Critics feel that the pricing and rental fees set for groundwater is not an accurate measurement of the true value of the resource.
With an online petition posted on SumOfUs.org, approximately 93,000 people are hoping to have water pricing in the new legislation re-evaluated. While the number of people petitioning increases, there is a permeating fear that corporations are getting away with outrageously low prices.
For B.C. residents, the new legislation will not change affect their bills tremendously, but there lies a growing concern around securing the province’s water resources. While the bill is set to come into effect in January 2016, the key criticisms of the legislation have all revolved around the access that corporations have towards B.C.’s natural resources.
B.C. has the lowest water rental rates in all of Canada, raising many questions regarding the effectiveness of the new bill itself. Some of the prices of water rental in other provinces include: Saskatchewan, with $46.25 per million litres, Quebec, with $70 per million litres, and Nova Scotia, with $140 per million litres.
While the new Water Sustainability Act is building upon a hundred-year-old document, a rare opportunity is presented through the changing of legislation on a provincial level, aimed towards strengthening the bond between risk and consequence. Under the old Water Act, companies did not have to pay any fee whatsoever for the extraction of groundwater. For many critics, Bill 18 succeeds in implementing a step towards the right direction, but the fees just need to be more accurate.
Nestlé is one of the companies that benefits from the immensely low prices the that the new Water Sustainability Act presents. Operating out of Hope, B.C., the sheer volume of water that Nestlé is purchasing further questions the ruling on the prices of water rental fees throughout the province.
Dan Fumano, a writer at The Province, unravels the implications of the new legislation through a look at the pricing of water rental fees.
“Under the old Water Act, Nestlé, like other groundwater users, didn’t need to pay the government anything for water withdrawals,” emphasized Fumano in an article published by The Province. “But under the Water Sustainability Act, Nestlé will start paying for the hundreds of millions of litres of groundwater they withdraw, bottle and sell. That rate of $2.25 per million litres — the highest industrial rate in the new price structure — means Nestlé will pay the government $596.25 a year for 265 million litres.”
When discussing Canada’s natural resources, especially within the recent parameters of perpetual environmental harm and climate change, the price for such a large amount of water seems inappropriate. To put the pricing further into perspective, consider an Olympic-sized swimming pool, which holds about 2.5 million litres of water. Under the new pricing of the Water Sustainability Act, filling the entire pool with water would cost roughly $6.00.
Furthermore, the comparison to an Olympic-sized swimming pool does not take into account the enormous profits Nestlé would be making. Considering that a bottle of water would cost $1.25 at a grocery store, the pricing put forward remains extremely contentious.
Critics are raising concerns specifically with the pricing of rental water, and demand that corporations should have to pay larger, more appropriate fees towards the extraction of a crucial natural resource.