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Canada  

Ontario hikes water fees

Ontario is proposing to charge water-bottling companies a little over $500 per million litres taken from the ground, amid a broader debate over the province's stewardship of the natural resource.

Some environmental groups applauded the announcement as another step in the right direction, while others called for an all-out ban on bottling and selling groundwater for profit, but the industry noted that water bottlers are responsible for a small fraction of water-taking permits.

The Liberal government proposed increasing the fee to $503.71 following public outcry over the current charge of $3.71 per million litres. The government is still reviewing other types of water-taking permits, such as ones for industrial purposes.

Mike Nagy, of the environmental group Wellington Water Watchers, said bottled water should be treated differently.

"These are very unique permits," he said. "This type of pumping was never intended from the permit-to-take-water process. It was never foreseen 30 years ago when the permitting process was put in place that people would take advantage of it, put it in a piece of garbage...and send it around the world for great profits."

Environmental Defence called the new fee good news, noting it would be the highest in Canada, but said Ontario still needs to better protect communities' access to clean drinking water and should give priority to "beneficial" uses such as agriculture over water bottling.

The group also called for Ontario to put a deposit on plastic bottles, similar to what is in place for liquor and beer bottles.

The province has already proposed new restrictions for bottled water companies that want to renew permits, and it has imposed a two-year moratorium on permits for new or expanded bottled water operations after Nestle Waters Canada purchased a well that the Township of Centre Wellington wanted for its growing community.

The bottled water giant has existing permits to take up to 3.6 million litres a day from its well in Aberfoyle, Ont., where it has a bottling plant, and another 1.1 million litres a day from a well in nearby Erin, Ont.

Nestle Waters Canada said in a statement that it will accept the final price set by the government after the comment period, though it suggested it takes issue with water bottlers facing a separate set of rules.

British Columbia charges $2.50 for every million litres, while Quebec charges $70 and Newfoundland and Labrador recently introduced a fee of $500 per million litres for water bottlers and $5 for other commercial purposes.

Ontario's current $3.71 charge is on top of a fee of $750 for low- or medium-risk water takings, or $3,000 for those considered a high risk to cause an adverse environmental impact. The proposed new fee for water bottlers was posted Wednesday on the regulatory registry for a mandatory 60-day comment period.



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