Thank you for extending the…

Thank you for extending the current moratorium on water bottling permits in Ontario. It is my hope that no additional permits will be granted to commercial water bottlers such as Nestle - ever.

While I understand it is important to balance jobs and the health of our environment, I also know that water is critical to our survival - as individuals, nature lovers, farmers, gardeners and industry.

As an Ontario citizen I am very disappointed that permit-holding water bottling facilities taking our groundwater are charged ONLY $500.00 per million litres of water under Ontario Regulation 176/17. As a citizen of Georgina I'm charged far more for the water I use!

A far more realistic fee, in my opinion, would be $0.01 per liter. The resulting charge of $10,000 per million liters would show water bottlers and citizens alike that we value this precious resource. Furthermore, some of the additional money in Ontario's coffers could help to offset the cost of recycling the millions of plastic bottles produced each year, not to mention the hundreds that end up in our environment thanks to polluters that have to be collected by town maintenance staff.

When the time to renew current permits comes around, I hope our provincial government will seriously consider significantly raising the rate charged to water bottlers. Thanks again.