See http://saveourwater.ca…

See http://saveourwater.ca/2015/12/21/grand-river-a-rmer-greatness/ written by Roy McGregor for the Globe and Mail in 2015 – it’s a brief history of the Grand River, the area where Nestle’s operates.

Currently, Nestle's Water Canada extracts 3.7 million litres of groundwater daily from its well in Aberfoyle, and it extracts a further 1.1 million litres from its Hillsburgh well on a daily basis. The moratorium under discussion does not apply to these existing operations. It ONLY applies to Nestle’s proposed new well in Elora from which it intends to take another 1.6-million litres of NON-RENEWABLE groundwater EVERY day ... to be sold around the world in millions and millions of those ubiquitous plastic bottles. The water leaves the ground, destined for international markets, meaning that water will never return to its source through the natural water cycle, and that is a BIG problem.

If multi-national Nestle’s is permitted to extract all the water it PRESENTLY wants in the Grand River watershed, it would be taking 6.4-million litres of water EVERY DAY from this single bioregion. You can be absolutely certain the government of Switzerland would NEVER allow this company (which maintains its head office in Switzerland), to extract so much water from its own regional watersheds. So what is Ontario doing?

After extending the moratorium for one year on the proposed ‘new’ well in Elora, Ontario needs to make a critical assessment of ALL industrial water-taking licences, not just Nestlé's, and it needs to review ‘revenues generated for the province’ -- the current charge to industry is $3.71 for each million litres of water, PLUS a NEW fee of $500 per million litres of water as of August 1, 2017, under Ontario’s new Regulation 176/17. NOW, industry will be charged a total of $503.71 per million litres of water. Compare that to what Ontario charged the municipality of Elora in 2016, specifically $2,140.00 per million litres of water -- this fee is described at https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/nestles-thirst-for-water/ Prior to August 1, 2017, a corporation paid one-tenth of 1% of what this LOCAL municipality paid. Now, any corporation, domestic or international, will pay 24% of what Elora has been charged for taking the same amount of water. And, what is Ontario NOW charging other municipalities in the same watershed for their own water?

For a moment (and at least one paragraph) let’s digress to consider those ubiquitous PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES. Supposedly, those bottles can be ‘recycled’ but we know they cannot be recycled back into plastic bottles, so once again, this is just an excuse to continue mass-producing ‘single-use’ plastic bottles unsustainably. We see such single-use items strewn in ditches and along roadsides everywhere, but they also make their way into rivers, lakes and oceans. On November 20, 2018, the CBC reported a dead whale washed ashore in Indonesia – its stomach contained more than 1,000 plastic pieces, including plastic bags, cups, bottles, even flip-flops. Due to the decayed state of the whale’s body, a definitive cause of death could not be made, but none of those plastic items had decayed. They were still intact and identifiable – and had likely blocked the whale’s digestive tract leading to its death. What’s happening with other aquatic creatures who swim and feed amongst the plastic wastes ejected by humans? And what about land-dwelling species? Any idea? This significant cost, and environmental hazard, cannot be ignored when discussing water-taking permits.

Why are global corporations given such generous access to key LOCAL resources in Ontario ... which are controlled by the PROVINCIAL government? The establishment and direct involvement of a local panel, including local citizens and municipal representatives, should make joint decisions with provincial representatives to avoid the potential for political short-sightedness (of the blinkered 4-year term variety), and cronyism which might 'lurk' within upper tiers of government. Why not use regular public referenda to make decisions about local resources, as has been done in Switzerland for over 100 years? Some fairly large urban centres such as Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph rely to a large degree upon groundwater – and the same goes for the small towns of Elora and Fergus which depend upon wells. It’s long past time to recognize that FINITE LOCAL natural resources should not be exhausted in order to feed short-term corporate profits or government revenues. The resource will run out, and so will the money. Then what?

This water is needed by local people, fish and other aquatic life, and forests, agriculture, and other industries (which should be locally based, not global in scope). Why would water (or ANY other FINITE resource) be given away to a global corporation at such a low price? WHY sell such a precious resource beyond its watershed boundaries at all when only 6% of groundwater can be renewed by rainfall approximately every 50 years on a human timescale? See http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/groundwater-study-1.3318137

Too many levels of government, and burgeoning government departments and programs, are setting us up for shortages of all finite natural resources. Sustainability will never be achieved by mass consumption of natural resources simply because too many politicians at all levels of government believe they, and their corporate associates, can 'grow forever'. It is time to understand, and work within, the limits of natural resources.