Ontario To Tax Water Bottlers

[RestoreGore]

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/198815

Ontario to tax water bottlers

The province plans to slap a fee on companies that bottle large amounts of water taken from the Great Lakes basin, the Star has learned. But legislation to be introduced today in the Legislature isn't expected to set a firm dollar figure on the water-taking fees, sources said.

Instead, the government will simply authorize itself to consult and negotiate details with affected parties, including the booming bottling industry, which is expected to oppose any additional costs on its operations.
The legislation would also enshrine into law a deal signed in December 2005 by Ontario, Quebec and eight U.S. states to strengthen restrictions on bulk water exports out of the Great Lakes. It's aimed mainly at preventing states in the south and Midwest – whose water supplies are running low – from tapping into the lakes.

Both measures are part of the government's attempt to paint itself as environmentally green in the run-up to the provincial election in October. However, it's not clear whether the negotiations with the bottlers and other commercial water users – or the fees to be imposed – would be complete by voting day.

Even so, a Liberal source trumpeted the move.

"There's a real recognition, it starts with the premier and goes on down through the government, that we can't just sit idly by and wait for others to do something on the environment," the source said. "We have to take some initiative ourselves and that means, where we can, working across borders with states and provincial counterparts to either clean up the air we breathe or the water we depend on," the source said.

The fee on commercial water users was part of the Liberal platform in the 2003 provincial election campaign.

"We will stop allowing companies to raid our precious water supplies," campaign documents stated.
~~~~~~~~~~
Water should not be a commodity. It is a public trust.

[HereSince1628]

1. Communities 10 miles from Lake Michigan can't get water from the Lake.

Because the Great Lakes Basin only extends that far west of Milwaukee.

This is a HUGE issue in SE Wisconsin were well water is contaminated with unsafe levels of naturally occurring radium, and the State of Wisconsin is trying to force communities to get within standards.

One easy way is to bring down the level is to dilute well water with Lake Water and return treated waste water into the GL basin. But the State of Michigan (which is virtually completely in the GL basin doesn't want Wisconsin communities to do this claiming that importing water from outside the basin into Lake Michigan is just as prohibited as moving water out of the basin.

With global population expanding and freshwater supplies shrinking, the land of sky blue waters is surely gonna have water wars.

[RestoreGore]

2. Yes, I see more battles coming

Which is why corporations need to leave their hands off our water, but of course with supplies shrinking they see it as their opportunity to cash in.