While it seems like a…

While it seems like a victory to have Nestle exit the bottle water business in Canada, they have simply sold it to another beverage company, Ice River Springs (owned by Gott beverages). So we've ousted a global beverage company, thanks to years of protests/petitions by Council of Canadians, Wellington Water Watchers and others, to a domestic company who will still bottle and sell our water for profit. I see Ice River has a green bottle made from 100% recycled plastic, but we know only a small percentage of plastics get recycled. Again thanks to grassroots organizations like the ones listed above, the Ontario government placed a moratorium on water taking permits and I'm glad the water management proposal is open to feedback from key stakeholders. I like the proposal of more transparency around these permits and allowing municipalities to have input before water taking permits are granted. However, then giving an exception for less than 379,000 litres/day defeats the purpose of having municipal input/objection.
In the end, it's up to consumers to take responsibility by not buying the product. Yes, it can be a necessity in places like First Nations communities, that have boil water advisories and insufficient water treatment infrastructure (sadly), or where folks are on wells that can dry up during droughts, but the vast majority of consumers purchase bottled water out of CONVENIENCE, not necessity. So let's also have a campaign to educate the public on our quality municipal drinking water as another measure to to keep our water in the public trust and reduce plastic pollution !