Within the next 10 years,…

Within the next 10 years, particularly in the face of global warming, fresh drinking water will likely become the MOST VALUABLE ASSET on the planet. All life depends on it, so water should be for life, and people, not for profit, as air is.

On 28 July 2010, through Resolution 64/292, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights. Don't ignore the importance of this in making your decision on how to move forward with our water-taking policies fairly and equitably, for the greatest number of Canadian citizens and Ontario residents.

It's critically important to keep private interests out of our public water supply. Water privatization does not serve the public interests in the locations it is being pumped from. Whether Nestle, Coca Cola or other companies, many places have been pumped dry for mega profits, at the expense of the people who live there.

As Covid-19 has just proved to the world, there is a strong need for governments to be able to intervene in public health issues, for the greater public good. If water continues to be privatized, this will not be possible in a drought or water crisis situation. Providing safe, clean drinking water for all citizens should come before corporate profits, which can cause water stress in communities, and a decline in public water quality for increased revenues.

Water use prioritization is essential for effective planning for our future. Drinking water for all should come first, then water for farming, then corporate and industrial uses. Businesses that profit from taking public water should be paying a percentage of those profits to the communities they take it from, not just a minimal fee to governments.

Municipalities should be enabled to have more say in this! They should have the right to have to give consent, or refuse it, not just provide "input", when corporations want to take their water, and in how water permits will be granted, and managed. They also need the tools to do research related to granting water-taking rights. The Democratic process, carried out with a wide range of public stakeholders, is essential to successful water rights management and planning.

Plastic pollution is now found in the blood of humans in every part of the world. A huge amount of this is due to water bottling. The planet is choking on plastic! It's time to be proactive about minimizing plastic waste, and particularly single-use plastic should be phased out entirely in Ontario.

Due to the highly localized nature of groundwater and large variation in population and climate impacts, the sustainability of groundwater in a few regions does not translate to sustainable groundwater across the province. Even within the study areas BluMetric deems sustainable, there are local areas with high levels of water stress that make groundwater extraction unsustainable in the future. It is deeply troubling that the Ministry chose to focus only on favourable findings when developing policy, opening the door to more water extractions while ignoring the unsustainable future of groundwater in the province. (https://canadians.org/analysis/what-missing-ontarios-new-water-manageme…)

It's also hard to believe that Canada, which contains close to 20% of the world's freshwater sources, still has hundreds of communities with no access to clean drinking water. The majority of these communities are Indigenous. At this point in time, one in five First Nations communities lack access to a safe water source, and there are 67 long term water advisories in Canadian first nation communities. Why are we selling our clean water for next to nothing to companies like Nestle, to make billions of dollars in profit, and yet not require them to pay enough to help improve water quality and infrastructure in our endangered communities?

Please please please consider the future and well-being of not only our Canadian citizens, but the pollution bottled water causes globally. Don't bow to the pressure and lobbyists for the water bottling industry!

Thank you!