I strongly support extension…

I strongly support extension of the moratorium on take water bottling permits. Indeed, the Province should go further and make the moratorium permanent for commercial water bottling operations.

There are two major factors that should be considered in taking water for bottling.

1. Commercial water bottling results in massive amounts of plastic pollution. For example, a facility that takes 2 million litres a day can result in production of 4 million 1/2 litre plastic bottles daily, or 1 billion bottles per year. Understanding that only approximately 9% of our plastic waste is recycled, and that most water bottling is for regional markets, this leads to significant load on Ontario landfills.

I would also point out that there is a major push to eliminate single use plastic of all sorts and that Ontario has fine municipal water systems, making most bottled water consumption in Ontario unnecessary.

2. The second major factor to be considered is the growing impact of climate change. We need to sustain our groundwater to feed both municipal systems and also the need for agricultural irrigation. As the impacts of climate change grow, as predicted by all the science, rainfall will be come more irregular. Although sometimes it will result in extreme rainfall, other times will result in period of drought. Water bottlers have shown by their behaviour in other jurisdictions (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-36161580) , that they can ignore local needs to reduce the taking of water during periods of drought.

There are also local factors, where water bottlers are trumping municipalities in their right to take water for the public good. Commercial interests are bidding up the cost of land on which they wish to drill for water and thus increase costs long term to municipalities to provide water for their citizens.

Water is a the most basic of human needs and rights. Provision of water should not be commercialized to the extent that has been manifest in modern society, Citizens have been mislead about municipal water quality and at the same time encouraged to become bottled water consumers by advertising. Neither of these factors benefit our society.