The future of water-taking in Guelph area
On Mon, Sept. 26, a rally was held outside Guelph’s City Hall promoting water protection in the Guelph-Wellington area. This gathering directly preceded a City Council meeting in which Councillor James Gordon put forth the motion to oppose Nestlé’s recent acquisition of the Middlebrook well in the neighbouring town of Elora. Nestlé bid and won against the Township of Centre Wellington.
Parents, children, students, and seniors all gathered outside City Hall to show their solidarity with Councillor Gordon’s motion, which was to be discussed later that evening at a City Council meeting.
The motion proposes that City Council take a stance against the renewal of Nestlé’s permit to take water (PTTW) from the Aberfoyle site. If this proposition wins City Council’s vote, a letter would be sent to Premier Kathleen Wynne on behalf of the municipality, urging the government of Ontario to consider the long-term repercussions of Nestlé’s permit renewal. The permit in question expired at the end of July, and the application to renew this permit has not yet moved forward into the next stage, which involves a 30-day period open to the input of the public and municipalities.
“Parents, children, students, and seniors all gathered outside City Hall to show their solidarity with Councillor Gordon’s motion…”
Although Councillor Gordon’s original proposition specifically cited the case of Nestlé and Aberfoyle, City Council decided after much deliberation to amend it in favour of a couple more generalized terms.
The amended proposition states that the issue in question, then, is not simply one of the multinational company Nestlé drawing water from its Aberfoyle site; the greater issue at hand is of water-taking from Guelph and its surrounding area, as well as the degree to which it is privatized.
The advantage to extending the opposition beyond the case with Nestlé is that the actions taken in the next few weeks could apply to all multinationals looking to renew their PTTWs in coming years.
The rally in front of City Hall is more than just an awareness campaign. As City Council’s meeting proved, both councillors and attendees are in favour of further discussion of this issue, including input from the public (called a delegation) at a specific appointed meeting, which is scheduled for Nov. 7.
“If this proposition wins City Council’s vote, a letter would be sent to Premier Kathleen Wynne on behalf of the municipality, urging the government of Ontario to consider the long-term repercussions of Nestlé’s permit renewal.”
“I think it’s important that whenever we’re trying to come to a consensus, on any issue, we should have three elements to it: the staff element, the council element, and the community element,” said Mayor Cam Guthrie in an interview with The Ontarion.
To give some background on the issue of PTTWs in Guelph and its surrounding area, the City of Guelph’s Waterworks division took an official stance on Nestlé drawing water from Aberfoyle back in May 2007:
“Waterworks would prefer that no new water takings be permitted in the City and surrounding area, other than for municipal, domestic and agricultural use. It is important that the MOE (Ministry of Environment) recognize that there are limits to the local drinking water supply and controls must be placed on local water use to accommodate future municipal growth.”
This statement shows that the City of Guelph already officially opposed—to some degree—future permit renewals.
“We have to reinvigorate the discussion and get the word out there,” said Councillor James Gordon about the upcoming meeting.
Photo by Dana Bellamy/The Ontarion.