The Premier of Ontario, Canada, Kathleen Wynne is saying that she wants there to be a more thorough review done of the water-taking permits that companies like Nestlé must purchase in order to bottle their public water that they then sell back. To the public.
"There's the issue of the quantity of water that's taken, there's the issue of the cost of that water," Wynne said.
"Also, there's an issue around the timing. As we all know, it's been a dry summer and so I think we need to look at what are the right triggers in place in terms of quantities that are allowable given the conditions."
Ever since Canadians found out that Nestlé pays a whopping $3.71 per 1,000,000 liters of water, people have been asking the question “What the hey?!?”
"Quite frankly, that window gives us an opportunity to look at what should change, rather than issuing a new permit under the same parameters as the former permit, which I think would not be appropriate," Wynne said.
Times have changed, she said.
"Thirty years ago, we wouldn't have envisioned an industry that took water and put it in plastic bottles so that people could carry it around," Wynne said.
It’s only taken the Canadians 30 years to wonder about the veracity of their water deal, and they have a universal health care system! Nestlé, for their part, is just pumping them some water.
Nestle Canada has three permits to take up to 8.3 million litres of water every day for bottling, while Nestle Waters Canada — a division of Nestle Canada — has a half dozen Ontario permits allowing it to take an additional 12 million litres a day.
A spokesperson for Nestlé said all the right things:
Nestle Waters Canada said it has built a "solid body of scientific data on the local water resources" and has a long-term commitment to sustainable water management.
"This monitoring program goes above our permitted requirements and we have always been compliant with the government set rate for water taking," the company said in a statement.
"We fully agree that all groundwater users should pay their fair share to fund the management of our water resources and all users must be treated equitably...We share Premier Wynne's concerns and are committed to being part of the solution."
It seems to me that Nestlé has a commitment to bottling water for profit. Bragging that you have always been “compliant with the government set rate,” is like bragging that you only ate one piece of cake when your mom told you that you could have one piece of cake—it’s a nothing statement.