ONTARIO PROPOSES IMPROVEMENTS TO BOTTLED WATER OPERATIONS

Firstly the improvements are to raise the ridiculous $3.71 per million litres of groundwater fee to $503.71 per million litres. While at first blush that seems like a huge increase, do the math. One million (1) litre bottles sell for between $1 and $2 per bottle depending on the quantity you buy. Hence the raw material costs are still only approximately five hundred dollars to generate between $1 and $2 million dollars in sales. Not too shabby. Then realize that the real "owners' of this water are Canadian citizens. It is our water not some corporation's water to do with as they please simply by paying until now an asinine $3.71 per million litres.

Mike Nagy of Wellington Water Watchers put it very well. He stated that it was not forseen thirty years ago that "...people would take advantage of it (the permitting process), put it in a piece of garbage ...and send it around the world for great profits.". Environmental Defence stated that Ontario should be better protecting communities access to drinking water and beneficial uses of groundwater such as agriculture should be given priority.

See yesterday's Waterloo Region Record article titled "Ontario proposes to boost water bottler fee".